Drena Castle (Italy)

A close and indissoluble bond links Drena to his Castle for many centuries. A typically medieval austere castle perched on top of a rocky spur to defend and control the deep furrow dug by the Rio Salagoni and the valleys of the Sarca and Cavedine.

It is a mysterious and fascinating castle that, seen from the road that climbs from Dro, shows a compact Ghibelline wall from which the Tower stands out, slim and lonely. From Drena, despite a precise restoration, the devastation suffered in 1703, during the Spanish succession war, is visible when the Franco-Hispanic troops commanded by the Duke Vendòme set the castle on fire, destroying the nearby Rocca di Arco with guns.

The Castle of Drena extends over the evocative desert of the Marocche, a natural phenomenon of glacial nature that has led to the formation of an expanse of boulders of 187 million cubic meters. Probably Castel Drena rose on a pre-existing prehistoric village in the 12th century. The family from Seiano, the first owners of the castle, used it as an instrument to control the communication routes between Trento and Garda.

The visit to the Castle starts from the car park next to the provincial road 84. You go up along a picturesque paved road to the third gate of the 16th century gate, beyond which you can access, among the outcropping rocks, to the second court of arms. door. On the left you can see the traces of the angular first door tower, dating back to the fifteenth century, while continuing you can see the stables and warehouses of the sixteenth century, the Palazzo Comitale, the ancient church of San Martino of the ninth century, the cistern for 'water with a barrel vault in stone and a walled house of the twelfth or thirteenth century. Further down is the lawn of La Lizza, surrounded and enclosed by crenellated walls, while in the middle of it all dominates the complex of the Mastio, from the 12th century.