A dense winter fog cleared briefly to reveal this fairy-tale scene around the Castle of Presule in South Tirol, Italy. The main castle was built around 1500, but it contains portions of the original fortress erected on the site in the early 13th century.
In Italian it is sometimes called Castel Colonna, reflecting the fact that around the time of Leonhard II the Völs family started to add the Colonna family name to their own.
The castle remained in the hands of the family until its last member, Felix, Freiherr von Völs, died childless in 1810. For the next 50 years the castle stood empty and nearly fell into ruins. Between 1860 and 1978 the castle changed hands no fewer than 14 times, suffering periods of decay followed by attempted restoration before finally being abandoned to its fate. However, in 1981 the Kuratorium Schloss Prösels (Prösels Castle Curatorship) was formed to restore the building; the work was completed the following year.[3]
