The palace that was almost stripped for its guts

Ever heard of a palace nearly being stripped for its guts? In 1875, Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein bought Schloss Velthurns for one specific reason: he wanted the ornate wood paneling and inlaid doors for his own palace in Vaduz. He even tried to move the pieces to a museum in Bolzano before the plan fell through. Talk about a high-stakes interior design move.

Built starting in 1578 by Prince-Bishop Johann Thomas von Spaur, the castle served as a summer residence for the bishops until 1803. It is a piece of Late Renaissance architecture that survived a messy period of municipal neglect in the early 20th century. After the state of South Tyrol took ownership in the late 1970s, a major restoration from 1980 to 1983 saved its remaining splendor.

Today, it functions as a museum and a venue for concerts and theater. You can walk through the rooms and see the most impressive parts - the paneling, doors, and ceilings. If you look closely at the wall paintings, you might notice they are not particularly original. Is that a tragedy? Not really. They were based on copper engravings, which actually makes them a fascinating study for art history even if they aren't exactly the peak of creativity.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons