Duino Castle ( it, Castello di Duino, german: Schloss Duino, sl, Grad Devin) is a fourteenth-century fortification located in

Duino Duino ( sl, Devin, german: Tybein) is today a seaside resort on the northern Adriatic coast. It is a ''hamlet'' of Duino-Aurisina, a municipality (''comune'') of the Friuli–Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy. The settlement, picturesque ...

(municipality of

Duino-Aurisina Duino-Aurisina ( sl, Devin-Nabrežina, german: Thübein-Nabreschin, also ; vec, label= Triestine, Duin-Aurisina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Trieste in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Lying near the border with ...

), near

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, on the cliffs overlooking the

Gulf of Trieste The Gulf of Trieste ( it, Golfo di Trieste, sl, Tržaški zaliv, hr, Tršćanski zaljev, german: Golf von Triest) is a very shallow bay of the Adriatic Sea, in the extreme northern part of the Adriatic Sea. It is part of the Gulf of Venice and ...

. Building commenced in 1389 at the order of the Wallsee family. The ruins of an older castle built in the eleventh century by the

Patriarch of Aquileia The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate (bishop), primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholicism, Independent Catholic Chur ...

are located on the grounds. In the nineteenth century, it became one of two residences for Prince Alexander von Thurn und Taxis and his wife Princess Marie of the

Czech branch of the House of Thurn und Taxis The Czech branch of the House of Thurn and Taxis (german: Thurn und Taxis) is a dynastic cadet branch of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis, a German noble family that was a key player in the postal services in Europe in the 16th century and ...

. While not the wealthiest of the Thurn und Taxis line, Alexander and Marie supported artists and writers, among these included

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

poet

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

. While a guest of Princess Marie in early 1912, Rilke began to write his ''

Duino Elegies The ''Duino Elegies'' (german: Duineser Elegien) are a collection of ten elegies written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He was then "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", and began t ...

'', a collection of ten long deeply philosophical and mystical poems which are considered to be his greatest work. Rilke dedicated his work to Princess Marie when they were completed in February 1922 and published the following year. Duino Castle remains property of the Thurn und Taxis family, and is owned by Prince Alexander and Princess Marie's great-grandson, Prince Carlo Alessandro della Torre e Tasso,

Duke of Castel Duino The Dukes of Castel Duino are a noble family in Italy descending from the Bohemian line of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis. History The title was created along with the additional title of Principe della Torre e Tasso in 1934 for Princ ...

. The castle has been opened to the public as a museum and park.

History

Early history

Near the castle are the ruins of the Old Castle which dates back to the 11th century. It belonged to the patriarchy of Aquileia. The castle dates back to 1389, when the Wallsee family commanded the construction of a strong fortress. Over time, the Wallsee family disappeared and the castle, after having been used as a prison, became the residence of the Luogar and Hofer.

The House of Thurn und Taxis

At the end of the 19th century it became the property of Prince Alexander Johann Vincenz Rudolf Hugo Karl Lamoral Eligius von Thurn und Taxis from the

Czech branch of the House of Thurn and Taxis The Czech branch of the House of Thurn and Taxis (german: Thurn und Taxis) is a dynastic cadet branch of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis, a German noble family that was a key player in the postal services in Europe in the 16th century and b ...

. It remains with the family to this day with his great-grandson Prince Carlo Alessandro della Torre e Tasso,

the current owner. The castle has been opened to the public as a museum and park. At the end of and after World War II, the castle served as Headquarters of the British

XIII Corps (United Kingdom) XIII Corps was a corps-sized formation of the British Army that fought on the Western Front during the First World War and was reformed for service during the Second World War, serving in the Mediterranean and Middle East throughout its servi ...

under the command of Lt. Gen. Sir

John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton Field Marshal Allan Francis Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton, (10 February 1896 – 20 January 1989), known as John Harding, was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First World War and the Second World War, served in the ...

. XIII Corps was part of the combined Allied

Mediterranean Theater of Operations The Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army (MTOUSA), originally called the North African Theater of Operations, United States Army (NATOUSA), was a military formation of the United States Army that supervised all U.S. Army forc ...

under Supreme Allied Commander Lt. Gen. Sir

William Duthie Morgan General Sir William Duthie Morgan, (15 December 1891 – 13 May 1977) was a British Army officer. During the Second World War, he commanded the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations during the late stage of the war. Early life and military career ...

Rilke and the ''Duino Elegies''

In 1912, Austrian-Bohemian writer and poet

(1875-1926) began to write portions of his famous work, ''Duino Elegies'', while visiting Duino Castle as a guest of the Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis (born Princess of Hohenlohe).Freedman, Ralph. ''Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke''. (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1998), 317-320. While walking along the cliffs overlooking the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

near the castle, Rilke claimed to hear a voice calling to him speaking the words of the first line, ''Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'' ("Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the hierarchies of angels?") which he quickly wrote in his notebook. Within days, he produced drafts of the first two elegies in the series (of ten) and drafted passages and fragments that would later be incorporated into later elegies—including the opening passage of the tenth elegy.Gass, William H. ''Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation''. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 225. The ''Duino Elegies'' are recognized by critics and scholars as his most important work and one of the chief transitional works between the apex of German Romanticism and

Modernist poetry Modernist poetry refers to poetry written between 1890 and 1950 in the tradition of modernist literature, but the dates of the term depend upon a number of factors, including the nation of origin, the particular school in question, and the biases ...

. They are ten intensely religious,

mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

poems that weigh beauty and existential suffering. The poems employ a rich symbolism of angels and salvation, and are described as a metamorphosis of Rilke's "ontological torment" and an "impassioned monologue about coming to terms with human existence" discussing themes of "the limitations and insufficiency of the human condition and fractured human consciousness ... man's loneliness, the perfection of the angels, life and death, love and lovers, and the task of the poet".Dash, Bibhudutt. "In the Matrix of the Divine: Approaches to Godhead in Rilke's Duino Elegies and Tennyson's In Memoriam" in Language in India Volume 11 (11 November 2011), 355-371. Rilke finished the work in Switzerland after a ten-year period where depression and an existential crisis rendered him unable to continue writing. Upon publication in 1922, Rilke dedicated the work to the Princess, who he esteemed as one of his greatest patrons and closest friends.

References

External links

Castle of Duino (Italian, English)

Duino Castle
{{Coord, 45, 46, N, 13, 36, E, region:IT_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures completed in the 14th century Castles in Friuli-Venezia Giulia Rainer Maria Rilke Thurn und Taxis residences