Abandoned fairytale castle

We are talking about a gorgeous abandoned castle somewhere in the heart of Italy, which has been empty for a long time and includes as many as 365 rooms! I first heard about it 5 years ago, but made no attempt to go there. But, as we know, any abandoned place has its own "expiration date" - some places are completely destroyed, some are demolished, and this castle, according to my colleagues, began to be restored. For me it was a powerful impulse to gather a team and go there, so as not to miss my last chance to visit there.

And so, a day later I was already buying tickets and began to plan a trip. Interviewing my friends from Belgium, England, France and Japan, I made a plan and decided to go on a trip - a trip that I will never forget.

The abandoned castle rises lonely on the mountain and as if invites non-standard tourists to tickle their nerves. Before visiting the place, I try to find out the detailed history of the building whenever possible - it is always interesting to know why it is empty. The castle dates back to 1605, followed by a series of restorations and repairs. In 1878, the king of Italy, Umberto, lived here. After the First World War, the castle turned into a hotel, the rooms in which cost sky-high money. Since 1999, the hotel's business has declined, and, no longer able to ensure its solvency, the hotel management left the castle. And for almost 16 years, the building has been in disrepair, being the de facto ownership of one Italian municipality. Only occasionally he is inspected by volunteer guards, who set as their goal the protection of the hotel from attacks by looters.

Having parked at the hill late at night, I saw the silhouette of the castle and thought a lot. But what if the information about getting into the castle is out of date? But what if we can meet workers, and then our affairs will become very bad, since this is the private property of the municipality? This castle was my dream, and I really did not want to miss my one and only last chance. I still couldn’t sleep, thoughts rummaged in my head.

At 4 nights, we decided to advance. The air temperature dropped to 5 degrees, and it was noticeably cold. Then we were waiting for a long climb to the mountain, on which the castle was located. I was silent during the whole time of the ascent — I was in constant thought. And then, in the end, through the crowns of the trees the facade of the building began to be visible, and my heart began to beat fast - the moment of truth came. The ground floor was covered with alarm, the windows were closed with bars. I had to sweat pretty to get inside. And so, three travelers were in the womb of a silent giant castle, in which there were 365 (!!!!) rooms. Yes, we got into the very labyrinth of the Minotaur ...

It was difficult to navigate in the pitch darkness, moreover, in all this labyrinth only two tiny stairs led upstairs. In the end, through trial and error, we ended up in the main hall. From the beauty I saw, I almost died on the spot. It’s hard to convey your impressions when your dream begins to come true slowly. I have always loved castles, and abandoned castles have taken possession of my heart forever. I was speechless with delight.

Still moving around the basement, we drew attention to a large number of tools, paints. This meant that the repair work had indeed begun, so we did the right thing by climbing here so early. According to information from my colleagues, I learned that the workers came here by 7 in the morning, so we had little time. But how, how could one inspect all the rooms, if each of them leads to indescribable delight ?!

Footsteps echo through the empty walls of the castle, and I felt myself in a fairy tale. The rooms are really amazing! Most rooms are built in the Moorish style, and this eclecticism here only gives the atmosphere.

In the abandoned world, it is customary to give code names to objects so that their location is difficult to find out. The same building is called Non plus ultra, as we see in this photo. Since then, I have seen many thematic photosets here - foreign researchers even celebrated weddings here. But this, I am sure, is remembered for a lifetime :)

Sheer delight and euphoria. Here, a whole day would not be enough to explore the palace. It's great that the place actually turns out to be much cooler than in the photographs. It is doubly pleasant that it even exceeded expectations!

Let's look up - everything is perfectly preserved. Gemstones can be seen here and there. European scholars greatly honor their "code of honor", therefore, in such places they behave as adequately as possible - they take only photos and leave only footprints on the floor.

The next room is even more striking - it is clear that the best craftsmen were invited to arrange each room.

During the time that the building was empty, the marauders carried out almost all the interior items - sofas, chairs, tables ... After that, the volunteers seriously took up the protection of the castle and strengthened the windows with bars for their money. After that, they began to receive funding from the municipality and soon even began to organize excursions there. But it is extremely rare and almost without any chance of getting inside - the server where applications for visiting are thrown is overloaded in the first 5 minutes after the publication of the tour proposal.

I also wanted to get in a civilized way, but I was late for a minute and did not manage to make my application. It was for the best, since later I saw crowds of tourists (40-50 people) in the room huddle in them, trying to take a picture. Of course, there is no trace of the atmosphere.

Europeans who did not manage to send applications no longer make attempts to get into the castle illegally under pain of severe punishment (private property, after all) and hope for the next excursion, which happens here on the strength of twice a year. We could not allow such a thing and risked alone to see the beauty of this beautiful fortress. There was a place for a small chapel.

One of the few rooms where traces of destruction are visible is a bath room. The faucet is torn off the font, there are large scratches on the wall.

We searched for the stairs upstairs for a long time. A very long time. It turned out she was hidden behind a small inconspicuous door. And how did the hotel guests orient themselves here.

On the second floor there is nothing remarkable, but you can view the rooms from above.

The main hall, which is still densely populated in my memory. Luxury…

One of the beautiful stairs, which was also not easy to find.

Time was inexorably approaching 7 a.m., and reluctantly had to leave.

Further, we heard strange sounds somewhere in the bowels of the castle - most likely, the workers were already in a mess. Then we wandered for a very long time through the endless rooms and corridors of the castle in search of a way out.

Having got out of the embrace of the castle, we found ourselves in a sunlit glade. Surprisingly, after all, very close to the world adjoins the inhospitable and mysterious world of the abandoned. This is what the castle looks like. Watches in his best years of life went, they are not decorative.

The day had not yet begun, but already gave a lot of positive emotions and a powerful psychological impulse to continue the journey on such a good note. Further on our way was an abandoned sugar factory and beautiful Venice, but this is a completely different story.