The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1919-04-19
Old Consiglio Castle in Trent.
b. LLOYD ALLEN, Special Staff Correspondent.

Only through centuries Of careful
work with hoe and pillow has it been
possible to create the garden that ex.
tends from Verona, where the Adige
river strikes the Venetian plain. to the
impossible mountain valleys many
miles away where the absolute absence
Of soil forbids any attempt at farm
ing.
The fields on either side of the riv-
er are broken into small lots, thou
sands being as small as a city block ;
many are much smaller in order to
completely fill segment of rock-lock-
ed earth. On these plots. that have
been leveled with infinite care, the
farmer Of the Trentino grows grain,
garden truck, grapes. and often other
fruit. The grapevines are kept pruned
to about four and half feet high for
the main stem. which grows to the
thickness of q mans wrist, while the
tendrils are trained onto sticks, or IN
many cases to trees that are kept
pruned down to a thick stump six or
seven feet high with small branches
half an inch in thickness protruding
In sheaf from the stump.
Ancient consigiio Castle.
During the middle ages Trent was a
typical fortified city crowned with an
old feudal castle. Built in 1890, this
stronghold, Castle Consiglio, has come
down to the present generation in a
beautiful state Of preservation. While
the Austrians held Trent the place
was used as q kind of town jail.
Ceasare Battisti, native Of Trent, an
ardent pr0-Italian who had the nerve
to enlist in the Italian army against
Austria, was shot In the courtyard Of
the castle, and is today the town and
the Italian nations martyr.
Stored in the wonderful old castle
were $4,000 captured Austrian rifles.
Piles of gas masks, trench tools, MUIR
derous trench knives and other odds
and ends of fighting mans equipment
were stacked in several Of the large
rooms.
In one Of the main corridors was a
typical Austrian torture machine. 1t
consisted of two rings. the first about
nine inches from the floor and the
second about four feet above ground.
The practice was to fasten a prison
er's ankles to the lower ring by means
Of piece Of rope, while the unfortu-
nate mans hands were tied behind
him through the upper ring. This
threw all the prisoners weight on the
wrists and ankles. Usually man
tainted after several hours.
Inspection Of the old Consiglio cas-
tie revealed how the war machine OF
the sixteenth century-for the castle
itself was fort-had been made to
serve the purposes Of the twentieth
century war lords.
In the highest room of the place. q
chamber Of the tallest tower.
was all that remained Of a German
outfit. The operators had
made themselves comfortable in the
damp old place by putting storm win
dows In the loopholes that were orig
inally cut for the convenience of c. Jss-
bow men.
To get to the tower one has to pass
through a frescoed courtyard where
men were hanged centuries ago. About
five or six feet from the old gallows,
q double affair, runs a sheltered gal
lery from which the dukes and their
sheltered from the weather,
a
Some Of the public squares in the
city Of Trent have fine old buildings
in Italian architecture. decorated from
ground to roof with gorgeous frescoes,
the coloring Of which is still vivid.