There are places that seem to belong to another world, others that hide surprising stories, and still others that manage to transform a simple journey into an extraordinary experience. In August, SiViaggia readers rewarded precisely this kind of destinations: incredible places, fairy-tale castles, imposing fortresses and landscapes capable of truly surprising us, also thanks to the history that brought them to us.
From Italy to Portugal, passing through Austria and South Tyrol, here are the five most incredible places that captivated readers in August.
The Bonoris Castle, the fairy-tale fortress born from a dream
Turrets with battlements, a drawbridge, stone walls and a moat: at first glance the Castello Bonoris di Montichiari, in the province of Brescia, looks like an authentic medieval stronghold. In reality its history is much more recent and, precisely for this reason, even more curious: at the end of the nineteenth century Gaetano Bonoris purchased the remains of the ancient fortress on the hill of San Pancrazio and decided to transform them into the home he had always dreamed of. Thus a neogothic castle inspired by the Middle Ages was born, completed by an English-style park and a panoramic garden.
Inside there are decorated rooms, frescoes, period furnishings and a chapel, but there is also a fairy-tale detail: there is also a secret safe, kept hidden until Bonoris’s death.
Here is our article: The fortress born from a romantic dream seems to have stepped out of a fairy tale: the Bonoris Castle
Castel Trostburg, the castle that houses 86 miniature fortresses
Above Ponte Gardena, in the Isarco Valley, Castel Trostburg dominates the landscape from a rocky spur. The medieval fortress has for centuries been linked to the Wolkenstein family and still preserves Gothic stube, frescoes, noble coats of arms and Renaissance interiors.
But the real surprise lies inside: the Museum of the Castles of South Tyrol houses as many as 86 scale models reproducing as many castles in the region. It’s like walking through a manor and at the same time facing an entire three-dimensional map of South Tyrolean fortifications.
Among the most evocative spaces there is the Gothic stube, with over 600 years of history, while from the outside the castle offers a spectacular view over the valley.
Here is our article: In Northern Italy there is the fortress of Oswald von Wolkenstein’s dreams: the magnificent Castel Trostburg
The Forte da Graça, the gigantic star-shaped fortress
On Monte da Graça, just outside Elvas, in the heart of the Portuguese Alentejo, stands one of Europe’s most spectacular fortifications: the Forte de Nossa Senhora da Graça, built in the eighteenth century to protect the city from the Spanish threat and today still appears as a gigantic military machine embedded in the landscape.
Bastions, moats, ramparts, ravelins, casemates and underground structures form an extraordinary defensive system. Its history traverses wars, sieges and bombardments, but also a long period during which the complex was used as a prison. Today the fortress is part of the Elvas fortification system, recognized by UNESCO.
Here is our article: Forte da Graça, the gigantic fortress that seems to rise from the hill
The Buçaco Forest, where greenery becomes therapy
We stay in Portugal to reach a forest that seems to have stepped out of a fairy tale and that has earned a very special recognition: the Buçaco National Forest, certified for the first time as a healing forest. It has thus become the fourth forest in the world to obtain this qualification.
The wood covers 105 hectares, protected by about 5 kilometers of walls, and houses over 250 species of trees and shrubs, many of which arrived in Portugal during the Age of Discoveries. Here you can practice forest bathing, walking slowly among the trees and immersing yourself in the sounds and scents of nature.
But the real twist arrives at the heart of the forest. The vegetation shelters a royal palace: Palácio do Bussaco, a sumptuous royal residence built in the Neo-Manueline style and today transformed into a luxury hotel.
Here is our article: The enchanted forest that heals: it is the fourth in the world and hides a royal palace
The Kreuzenstein Castle, the fortress that seems to have stepped out of a fairy tale
Just a few kilometers from Vienna, the Kreuzenstein Castle dominates a hill in Lower Austria with everything you would expect from a medieval fortress: towers, walls, a moat, a drawbridge and a nearly theatrical silhouette. But again the reality is different from what it seems: the present castle was built between 1874 and 1906 by Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek, an aristocrat and avid collector with a passion for the Middle Ages. To realize it he had architectural fragments, doors, carved elements and authentic medieval artifacts brought from various parts of Europe.
The result is a kind of ideal castle, built in the nineteenth century with ancient materials. Inside you can admire an armory rich with swords and armor, a Gothic chapel, the knights’ hall, antique furnishings and also a curious artifact known as the “unicorn horn.”
Here is our article: The fairy-tale fortress on the hills full of imperial secrets: Kreuzenstein Castle
