Ton
Ton is a municipality in the lower Val di Non, in Trentino, stretched along the left bank of the Noce torrent among gentle slopes...
Updated 21 July 2026
This season · July · Summer
What to do in Ton now
The story
The story of Ton
Ton in the Val di Non
Ton lies in the lower Val di Non, in the province of Trento, at around 482 metres above sea level, on a municipal territory of just over 26 square kilometres that develops along the left bank of the Noce torrent, almost at the entrance to the valley when arriving from Trento. The landscape alternates terraces planted with apple orchards, woods and the first hills that mark the transition from the valley floor to the higher elevations of the Val di Non. Unlike many municipalities in the valley gathered around a single centre, Ton is a scattered municipality, made up of several distinct settlements, each with its own identity, yet united by the same agricultural vocation and the same bond with the Noce torrent, which forms its natural boundary and has shaped its economy and settlements over the centuries.
Castel Thun: the Fortress of the Prince-Bishops
The most famous monument in the municipality is Castel Thun, originally called Castel Belvesino and later renamed after the Thun family, which established its seat here around the middle of the 13th century. Over the centuries the family gained such power that it produced three prince-bishops of Trento, and there were no shortage of dramatic moments, such as the 1569 fire in which Sigismondo Thun, then imperial orator at the Council of Trento, died. The transformations between the 16th and 17th centuries gave the castle its current appearance, with the scenographic Moorish-style Spanish Gate of 1566, reached via a drawbridge, and the Bishop's Room, entirely lined with larch wood, with a coffered ceiling and a majolica stove. After being acquired by the Autonomous Province of Trento in 1992 and roughly eighteen years of restoration, the castle opened to the public on 17 April 2010 as the fourth site of the Castello del Buonconsiglio Museum, alongside Trento, Castel Beseno and Stenico Castle, preserving period furnishings, a rich library and the family archive.
The Apple Orchards and the Val di Non PDO Apple
Around the settlements of Ton, as in much of the Val di Non, the landscape is shaped by apple orchards, which cover the slopes and the valley floor in an orderly blanket of rows. The municipality lies within the production area of the Val di Non apple, recognised as a Protected Designation of Origin, the first Italian apple to obtain this quality mark, with the Golden Delicious and Renetta Canada varieties as the flagships of a centuries-old apple-growing tradition. Cultivation is organised through agricultural cooperatives that handle harvesting, storage and marketing, a model that has kept small family farms competitive while keeping the terraced landscape alive. In spring the blossoming of the orchards turns the countryside of Ton into a sea of white and pink, while in autumn the harvest sets the pace of work for the village families, in an agricultural cycle that is at once economy and identity of the territory.
The Hamlets, the Noce and the La Rocchetta Biotope
The municipality of Ton is made up of the main hamlet, Vigo di Ton, where the town hall stands and where Castel Thun is located, and the hamlets of Toss and Masi di Vigo, small rural settlements that preserve the traditional layout of Val di Non villages. Vigo di Ton is also home to the church of Santa Maria Assunta, a 16th-century Gothic building housing works by the Venetian painter Gianantonio Guardi. Along the Noce torrent, at the entrance to the valley and straddling the territory of Ton and neighbouring municipalities, lies the La Rocchetta Biotope, a protected natural area established in 1992 covering nearly 89 hectares. Here the course of the Noce forms wetland and wooded habitats that host a rich and varied birdlife, including mallards, sandpipers, warblers, dippers and kingfishers, together with a pair of penduline tits recorded as the species' first nesting in Trentino.
History and Experiences in Ton
The history of Ton has been intertwined for centuries with that of the Thun family, which governed vast estates from its castle and lent prestige to the Val di Non with figures of note in the ecclesiastical and political life of the Prince-Bishopric of Trento. That aristocratic history coexists today with the simpler, more concrete identity of a village of orchards and small hamlets, where the castle, returned to the community as a museum, represents a bridge between past and present. A visit to Castel Thun, among frescoed rooms, period furnishings and the Spanish Gate, can today be paired with a walk among the orchards of Vigo, Toss and Masi di Vigo, a stop at the La Rocchetta Biotope for birdwatching, or a wider itinerary through the Val di Non, which from Ton unfolds among castles, villages and orchards up to the foot of the surrounding mountains.
Not to be missed
- Castel Thun, the fourth site of the Castello del Buonconsiglio Museum
- The Bishop's Room and the Spanish Gate inside the castle
- The church of Santa Maria Assunta in Vigo di Ton, with works by Gianantonio Guardi
- The La Rocchetta Biotope along the Noce torrent, for birdwatching
- A walk among the Val di Non PDO apple orchards in the hamlets of Vigo, Toss and Masi di Vigo
To see
What to see in Ton
Routes · Trovido Route
