Valer Castle, Medieval castle in Val di Non, Italy

Castel Valer is a hilltop castle on a 594 m rise southwest of Tassullo in Ville d'Anaunia. Its oldest part, the 'castel di sotto', centres on an octagonal keep 40 m tall, built of granite blocks brought from the Adamello group over the Tonale Pass. From the 15th century the Spaur family added the 'castel di sopra', with curtain walls and a palace of more than a hundred rooms.

Castel Valer is first documented in a contract of 23 February 1297; a second deed of June 1301 names Ulrich I. von Coreth as owner. On 29 December 1301 a peace treaty between the sons of Meinhard II of Tyrol and the cities of Mantua and Verona was signed there. The Spaur family held it for centuries, and Count Ulrich Spaur lived in it until his death in February 2021; in 2023 the autonomous province of Trento acquired it.

The castle chapel is dedicated to Saint Valerius of Trier, from whom the name Valer may derive. Its 15th-century fresco cycle was painted by the Bergamasque artists Giovanni and Battista Baschenis. A chapel on the site is documented in 1368, and the present one was consecrated in 1473.

The castle stands on a 594 m hill southwest of Tassullo, in the municipality of Ville d'Anaunia. Its north side is bordered by the Fosso del Laghet ditch, while the south side drops steeply into the gorge cut by the Paglia stream; the south slope has repeatedly slid during floods, and parts of the castle once collapsed. The hilltop was already visited in Roman and early medieval times, as archaeological finds show.

The octagonal keep, 40 metres tall, is considered the tallest castle tower in Trentino, and its octagonal plan is the only one of its kind in the province. Its granite blocks were quarried in the Adamello group and carried over the Tonale Pass, since no granite occurs in Val di Non.