Arco Castle

The area around Arco was inhabited already before the Middle Ages, the castle was said to have been built by the citizens and only later becoming the property of the local nobles.

Though they were raised to comital (Grafen) status by the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II in 1221, they had to acknowledge the overlordship of the Meinhardiner princely counts of Tyrol in 1272.

The Counts of Arco were expelled by the Prince-Bishops of Trent in 1349, whereafter the castle fell to the Veronese noble house of Scaliger.

Nevertheless, they regained the castle in a local uprising, and in 1413 further strengthened their position by obtaining the status of Imperial immediacy from the hands of Emperor Sigismund in 1413.

The castle was later abandoned after a siege by French troops under General Duke Louis Joseph of Vendôme in the course of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1703.