Brunnenburg Castle The original portions of Brunnenburg Castle were constructed around 1250 on a promontory of glacial till directly below Schloss Tirol, the castle from which the Tirol region derived its name. By 1600, Brunnenburg was in ruins, not to be rebuilt until the early 1900s. The Rachewiltz family came to own and inhabit the castle in the 1940s and began to renovate and restore the castle and surrounding farm. American poet Ezra Pound, father of Mary de Rachewiltz, completed his Cantos at Brunnenburg from 1958 to 1962. Brunnenburg presently houses a museum of local Alpine agriculture and serves as an international study center and center for the arts. The South Tirol region The South Tirol region is a mixture of Germanic and Italian cultures, given its history as part of Austria until World War I and its present status as an autonomous region of Italy. Brunneburg is located in the village of Dorf Tirol/Tirolo, just above Meran/Merano. The provincial capital, Bozen/Bolzano, is about 27 kilometers to the southeast. Several major cities can be reached via a four to six hour train ride, including Venice, Florence and Innsbruck.
