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The Madruzzo Castle (p.2/3)
The first documentary evidence dates back to 1159. A document was drawn up concerning an Act for credits which the inhabitants of the neighbouring valleys owed to the Bishop of Trento. Witness to this Act was a person called Gumperto or Gumpone from “Castel Madruzzo”.

Very little is known about him except that he was a militiaman. In 1161, together with his nephew Boni Insegna, he received the Casle of Madruzzo by a solemn investiture from Bishop Adelpreto II, who maintained the perpetual right of access to the fortress and consequently established his Curia there.

The building at that time was made up of two towers: the “Boninsegna Tower”, square in shape and approximately 15 meters tall and the “Gumpone Tower” , trapezoidal in shape and approximately 20 meters tall. The towers were surrounded by walls erected on rock on top of a mound. The dwellings were situated beside these towers.
The Gumpone dynasty which had generally remained faithful to the Bishop of Trento, died out towards the end of XIV century. It had been involved for a long time in conflicts when the Bishop of Trento area had a prime role and on occasions was even divided between the opposing parties.

Following this very restless period, during which the castle underwent seizure, plundering and changes in ownership, the Gumpone family was succeeded in 1300 by a family from Castel Nano in Val di Non.

The first man to receive the title of Lord of Madruzzo was Giangaudenzio, born in 1480. It was with him that the second family of Madruzzo started its ascent to fame, reaching an apex in 1500. It was Giangaudenzio who transformed the severe fortress of Madruzzo into an elegant residence fit for a prince.

Giangaudenzio made his fortune in the shadow of the Bishop Prince of Trento, Bernardo Clesio, to whom he was Economist and Attorney General at the Assembly of Worms, in the reign of Charles V, the Emperor upon whose dominions it was reputed “the sun never set”. Giangaudenzio also emerged during the repression of the peasant revolt which exploded in 1524 at Stuhlingen in the Black Forest, spreading later to Renania, Franconia and as far as Turingia, reaching the Tirol Region in 1525.

Acting as Defence Commissary of the principality of Trento, the Lord of Madruzzo helped to suppress the revolt which had taken seige of the city and forced Clesio to flee. Giangaudenzio also held a leading role in the Battle of Pavia, where the troops of Charles V defeated the French King Francesco I. He was the first of the “Trentini” to receive the title of Baron from Ferdinando I, King of Romans; to whom he was also Councellor.
It was one of Giangaudenzio’s sons, Cristoforo, born of Eufemia of Sporenberg, to bring the Madruzzo family to the peak of fame, wealth and political influence in Europe at the time.

He was born at Madruzzo Castle on July 5, 1512 and at the age of 26 years was ordained Bishop Prince of Trento, after the death of Bernardo Clesio. Such nomination was undoubtedly due to his father’s strong influence on the Asburgh Court. Three years later Cristoforo became Administrator to the Bishopric of Bressanone and in 1543 was ordained Cardinal by Pope Paul III.

Cristoforo was a very ambitious and proud amn and was the first member of his family to hold such a position as important as Bishop Prince, which owing to a strong paternalistic policy, was to be passed down and was to remain a prerogative exclusive to the Madruzzo family for more than a century.

We have a contradictory description of Cristoforo: whilst aware of his episcopal dignity he was also a man of the Renaissance and conscious of his princely condition, waiting to emulate his predecessor in following the tradition of pomp and splendour of the Curia Trentina. His immense and refined culture and his numerous connections with the Italian world of arts and literature at that time, gave him the possibility of being surrounded by one of the most brilliant Cardinal courts of the sixteenth century in Rome.

Cristoforo was also a very able and shrewd politician, loyal to the Austrian Royal Household, by which he was assigned many delicate tasks; in 1540 he went to Belgium for Charles V and to Venice in 1541 on behalf of Ferdinando I, King of the Romans; he took part in Assembly of Augusta; in 1556 he was nominated Lieutenant and Governor of Milan by Filippo II, after the departure of the Duke of Alba; in 1561 he became Pontificial Ambassador to Pio VI in the Marche, after having settled disputes between the Asburghs and the Farnese Court.

The most remarkable event of his bishopric was the opening of the famous Council of Trento in 1545, in which the Lord of Madruzzo took an extrmely active part, often in opposition with Cardinal Del Monte, Pontificial Ambassador, who was to became Pope Giulio III in 1550.

In 1567 Cristoforo renounced to the Principality in favour of his nephew Ludovico, which he later regretted, and retired to Rome: Cristoforo died at the Villa d'E’te in Tivoli on July 5, 1578.

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