The castle of Tarasp was built around 1040 by the lords of Tarasp, who had moved from the lake Como to the Engadin. In 1239, the fortress came into the possession of the count of Tirol. From 1646 on, the castle of Tarasp became an Austrian county and in the course of the 16th century the complex was magnified and made a border fortress. In 1803, Napoleon gave Tarasp, which was one of the last Austrian enclaves in Switzerland, to the Helvetic Republic. In the following decades, the castle frequently changed owners and sustained grave damages.
In the summer of 1900 the industrial Dr. Karl August Lingner from Dresden came to Vulpera for a cure. The inventor of Odol mouthwash then decided to acquire the fortress and to renovate it. In an ambitious effort aimed at bringing the castle of Tarasp back to glory, old wood paneling and furniture were bought up from patrician houses in the Grisons, in Tirol and in Germany. In 1916, Lingner installed a Dresdner Jehmlich organ in the former armory chamber that is now the castle’s music room. This organ is now said to be the biggest private organ in Europe.
In the same year, Lingner died of a sudden death. According to his testament the castle of Tarasp was meant to be given to the last king of Saxony, Friedrich August III. As he refused the legacy, Tarasp then went to the grand duke Ernst Ludwig von Hessen. The von Hessen family remained in possession of the castle until the 30th of March 2016, when Not Vital acquired the castle of Tarasp.
Today, the castle of Tarasp houses a collection of antique, modern and contemporary art. The Parkin, a sculpture park in the village of Sent, and the historic Planta house in Ardez form part of Not Vital’s foundation as well.