Joseph von Trauttmansdorff

In 1846 Count Josef von Trauttmansdorff from Styria arrived in Meran and rediscovered the castle abandoned by his ancestors 150 years earlier. He bought the half-ruined building, restored and enlarged it to its present size and gave it a neo-Gothic appearance. Trauttmansdorff Castle, as it came to be called, is considered to be the earliest example in Tyrol of a neo-Gothic castle.

Count Trauttmansdorff was a great admirer of Archduke Johann, an unconventional reformer among the Hapsburgs. Count Trauttmansdorff wanted to extend the estate and establish a model farming enterprise in the Meran area along the lines of Archduke Johann's in Styria. To this end he bought the neighbouring estates of Pienzenau and Fragsburg with their farms, orchards and arable land.

The count, who never married, died in 1867. The crypt in which he was buried can still be seen under the new castle chapel. Reichsritter Moritz von Leon, thought to be an illegitimate son of the count, inherited the estate.