If you are looking for facts and figures about Taufers Castle, you are in the wrong place. Because we want to tell stories that people whisper to each other behind closed doors and report on events that may never have happened. But you can never be sure about such an old castle.
Taufers Castle: Wild and wildly romantic stories
No snow for the dancing vampires
He is said to have been quite disappointed, the good Mr Polański. But even a directorial genius like him can't do much against the weather: Snow just wouldn't fall in the winter of 1966, and that's exactly what was needed for the filming of "Dance of the Vampires". So Roman Polański had his vampires dance in a studio castle. If you look closely, you will recognise many a familiar detail. The castle gate, for example, is a 1:1 replica. Taufers Castle will look familiar to cineastes; scenes from "The Red Violin" by François Girard or parts of the Hollywood slapstick „Just Married" with Ashton Kutcher were also filmed at Taufers Castle. Younger generations, on holiday in the Ahrntal valley, often utter an astonished "That's Shiverstone Castle! The book adaptation filmed in 2015 and also Part 2 with the captivating title „Shiverstone Castle 2" were even awarded the rating "educationally valuable". Which is more than can be said for the stories the film crew told each other after shooting: If you don't like to see blood (or even imagine blood), you'd better not read any further. It gets discreetly gruesome.
Bloody horror story: The cow as saviour
There is, for example, the legend of the robber barons who once laid siege to Taufers Castle and its inhabitants. The wild men wanted to starve the castle's inhabitants. Soon there was nothing left to eat except for a skinny old cow and its meagre milk. The lords of the castle thought up a ruse. They slaughtered the cow and threw the entrails into the moat, right into the camp of the robber barons. And they left. For anyone who could slaughter a cow just like that must still have plenty of supplies. Count Hugo's daughter is said to have taken the same route as the entrails of the heroically dead cow: Agnes threw herself out of the window; death probably seemed more appealing to her than marriage to a hated count. Perhaps it is Agnes who haunts Taufers Castle. Some, on the other hand, are certain that the ghost is the soul of Margarete von Taufers, who is still mourning her husband. In the so-called ghost room, her soft weeping and wailing are said to be heard.
Of romantic castles in the air and empty wallets
Now we'll stop with the horror stories, after all we don't want you to be afraid when you're on holiday with us. But we have to tell you one thing, because we are often asked about it: Yes, there is a torture chamber and a dungeon at Taufers Castle. And yes, both were once in active use. Our last story is about quite different torments, namely heartbreak: The Viennese glass manufacturer Ludwig Lobmeyr, born in 1829, had fallen madly in love with a Hungarian countess. Full of love lust and probably also to impress his lady of the heart, he bought the then dilapidated Taufers Castle and wanted to turn it into a real fairytale castle. At least Lobmeyr managed to keep the castle walls from collapsing, but at some point his wallet was empty and after further trials and tribulations, Taufers Castle finally ended up in the hands of the South Tyrolean Castle Institute in the 1970s. And so it now sits enthroned in full splendour on the "Klopf", as the rock is called by the locals. If you are lucky, you will meet Castellan Dr Alexander Maier on your visit. He has a lot of other stories to tell about Taufers Castle ...
