Castle Stetteneck

Burg Stetteneck once stood on the Col da Pincan, a hill just east of St Ulrich in the Grödner valley. The site overlooks the valley floor and the Pitschberg ridge behind it. Local legend, recorded by Karl Felix Wolff as ‘Das Schloss am Abgrund’, kept the memory of the castle alive. For decades people believed the ruins lay on the higher Balest, but no traces were ever found there. In 2000 archaeologists Herwig Prinoth and Stefan Planker pinpointed the remains after re-reading a 17th-century description by Marx Sittich von Wolkenstein. Excavations uncovered parts of the main tower, protective walls and a gate with a Romanesque arch. Finds included an iron crossbow bolt, a gaming piece of Grödner sandstone, fragments of fine glassware, oil lamps and pottery. The fortress dates from the 13th century, probably before 1256. Its ring wall was 1.8 m thick and the whole complex measured about 40 m long. The first written record of the Stetteneck family names Gebhard as a judge in Gufidaun and a ministerial of the Bishop of Brixen. A 1283 document mentions the chapel of St James in Stæteneke near today’s St Ulrich church, confirming the site. Gebhard appears in a 1256 peace treaty drawn up at Ritten by Bishop Bruno of Kirchberg. The agreement threatened any ministerial who committed robbery between Säben and Bozen with loss of all rights and property. Gebhard was ordered to return a farm unlawfully seized from a citizen called Vlshalcus. The ruins lie close to the parish church of St James, linking medieval fortress and village life.