1. in 1657, a Piedmontese nobleman named Girolamo Bernardo Ferrari appeared in Innsbruck, the capital and residential city of Tyrol and the Upper and Lower Austrian provinces ruled by Archduke Ferdinand Karl (1646-1662) with his wife Anna, a daughter of the rich and powerful Cosimo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, a Piedmontese nobleman named Girolamo Bernardo Ferrari, Conte d'O cchieppo, from the Medici dynasty, who had previously come to Vienna as an envoy of the Duke of Savoy and entered the service of the House of Austria there. The then ducal Savoyard chamberlain and knight of the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus was born at the beginning of the 17th century in Biella, a small town in Piedmont, province of Novara, where his family, belonging to the city nobility, owned houses and estates, including the fiefdoms of Occhieppo and later Chiavazza, to which the title of count was attached and after which the family was named. At that time, the Italians exerted the greatest influence at the Innsbruck court. Although they promoted the arts and sciences, they also fuelled a penchant for ostentation and extravagance. This Hieronymus Bernhard Ferrari Count v. Occhieppo, as he later called himself in German, therefore soon rose to the highest positions and dignities at court and in government: he became Lord Chamberlain to Her Serene Highness the Archduchess Anna, who had bequeathed him a legacy of 80,000 florins on her death (1676) for the many years of obedient and most rewarding service he had rendered; he was Imperial Chamberlain, then Privy Councillor and Privy Councillor to Her Majesty. When Duke Charles of Lorraine, the famous conqueror of the Turks, administered Tyrol and the Austrian and Austrian provinces as Gubernator from 1678 to 1690, he was also appointed Lord Chamberlain to his wife, Eleonora Archduchess of Austria, a sister of Emperor Leopold. As her first marriage was to the Polish elector Michael Wisnowiecki (1669-1673), she is always referred to as the "Polish Queen". Finally, through his wife, Anna Dorothea by birth, Count Hieronymus Bernhard Ferrari was distantly related to the House of Habsburg, albeit illegitimately, as her maternal grandfather was Charles Margrave of Burgau, the younger son of Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol and Philippine Welser. Count Ferrari used the wealth he had acquired through his position and connections to embark on major ventures even in his old age. In 1682, he acquired the lordship of Imst in the Upper Inn Valley for the sum of 60,000 guilders, in 1685 that of Taufers in the Puster Valley for 70,000 guilders, in the same year he began the construction of the magnificent Baroque palace on Kohlstatt (Dreiheiligen) and designated an endowment of 30,000 guilders for the establishment of the Ursuline Order in Innsbruck. In 1678, together with his brother's son (nephew) Johann Baptist Count Ferrari, he was included in the Tyrolean register of nobility, so that the male members of the family were authorised to use the titles "Lord of Imst and Taufers, Lord and Landman of Tyrol". In 1687, he established a family dynasty with primogeniture from all his possessions in Piedmont and Tyrol in order to maintain the family's reputation and splendour. Hieronymus Bernhard died in Innsbruck on 3 January 1691 at the age of almost 90, his wife a year later on 15 January 1692 at the age of 80. Both were buried in the family burial place of his choice in the collegiate church of the Premonstratensians in Wilten. He also made large pious donations for his and his family's salvation. The old count had every reason to honour his nephew Ioh. Bapt. Ferrari Count of Occhieppo (born in Biella around 1650) from the inheritance of the entailed estate, for not only was he uneconomical, but his hot Italian blood repeatedly tempted him to excesses and violations of law and custom, to a way of life that was incompatible with his rank and high profession, as he was Imperial Chamberlain and Imperial Regimental Councillor. Even as a young student, on a night in April 1676, he attacked the brothers Ferdinand and Alexander Count von Arco, who were also studying at the University of Innsbruck, together with his cronies, who were masked in the Welsh style; the latter was wounded in the face and had a limb of his right thumb shot off by a pistol bullet 3 . As he did not give up his lifestyle, which was characterised by an unfortunate natural disposition and a hot temper, and continued to lead an unsettled wandering life, he was placed under "arrest" by order of the Emperor in 1695, first at Rattenberg Castle and then at Kufstein Fortress. When the Bavarian-French invasion threatened in June 1703, he was first taken from Kufstein to Innsbruck and then transferred to Meran in autumn to restore his broken health under supervision. After travelling there, he escaped to Italy at the overnight stop in Brixen. From then on, every trace of him and his family in Tyrol disappeared, with the exception of two of his sons, who were appointed to the entail one after the other. 2 Johann Baptist Count Ferrari was married twice. His first wife was a niece of the wife of his uncle Hieronymus Bernhard, named Anna Adelheid Ferrero Marchesa della Marmora, who died soon after giving birth to a son. This great-nephew Karl Josef Count Ferrari (born 1681, died 1705) was appointed universal heir to the entailed estate by the old count in his will of 1687, while he left his nephew, the often-mentioned Ioh. Baptist, the father of Karl Josef, only with an annual legacy of 1500 guilders. 3. his second wife, a born Maria Katharina Countess of Kuenburg from Graz, chose Ioh. Baptist Count Ferrari in a somewhat peculiar and unusual way. He abducted her, who was a lady-in-waiting at the court of Duke Charles of Lorraine in Innsbruck, and whisked her off to Switzerland one fine summer night in August 1682. Naturally, the imperial regimental councillor of Upper Austria was dismissed from his position for this outrage, but at the instigation of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, Max Gandolf Count of Kuenburg, a close relative of the abducted woman, he was taken back into favour by the Emperor. This couple now became the progenitors of the Tyrolean Counts v. Ferrari. Their marriage produced seven children between 1683 and 1692, of whom Leo pold Ignaz Count Ferrari (born 1687, died 1764) succeeded his stepbrother Karl Josef (from his godfather's first marriage), who died without male offspring, as the next appointed entailed heir in 1705. But like his father, from whom he had inherited his hot-blooded temperament, he was likewise overshadowed by an ill-star. His extravagance often kept as many as 10 servants and disrupted his household economy. He was constantly at war with the ecclesiastical and secular authorities. Attempts were made to persuade him to repent using a wide variety of coercive means. For example, a church fine of 200 guilders imposed on him was used to purchase an organ in Ahrn (Tauferertal). Another time, he settled with the government to "restore his honour" by paying a fine of 4,500 guilders, which was used to build a penitentiary and punishment house in Innsbruck (today the Einquartierungs-Turnusvereinshaus, Innstrasse 2). Exercises in penance "to save his soul" in the Capuchin monasteries in Münster in Switzerland and Innsbruck alternate with house arrest. He also escaped abroad several times. Finally, the recidivist was "arrested" at Rattenberg Castle, like his father, until he was finally ordered to stay in the small town of Hall. The ageing Count, who was also an imperial chamberlain and Upper Austrian regimental councillor, spent the last years of his life in tranquillity at his palace in Dreiheiligen.

4 Count Leopold Ignaz was married twice. His first marriage to Maria Franziska Countess Truchseß v. Waldburg-Zeil (died 1730) remained childless. His second wife, born Sidonia Wenzl v. Ragen und Kirchegg*, bore him four children, of whom Count Josef Ferrari (born in Hall in 1735, died in 1794) became heir apparent. He was Imperial and Royal Chamberlain and the last Upper Austrian regimental councillor in this family. 5 Only Josef's first marriage to Maria Iofepha Countess v. Wolkenstein-Trostburg was blessed with four children. Of these, Johann von Gott Count Ferrari (born 1764, died 1834), Imperial and Royal Chamberlain, was the last owner of the entailed estates and fiefs in their former extent, which were again well managed by the last owners. However, the Napoleonic upheavals brought economic collapse. As a result of Napoleon's conquests in northern Italy, the properties there were lost in 1805. During the Bavarian government (1806-1813), part of the Tyrolean entailed and fief property was converted into free property and then gradually sold off. The patrimonial courts of Imst and Täufers were taken over by the state. Count Johann von Gott was also married twice. The daughter Katharina from the second marriage (1810) to Msria Anna Freiin v. Zech zu Deybach und Sulz was the wife of Ferdinand Freiherr Fenner von und zum Fennberg

5 . His first wife, Kreszenzia Gräfin v. Sarnthein, had borne her husband eight children. His eldest son Josef (died 1869) was the Imperial and Royal Tobacco and Stamp Wear Magazine Administrator. The warehouse was located in his palace in Dreiheiligen. This line died out in 1918 with his grandson Josef of the same name. Johannes v. Gott second son Friedrich (died 1872) was a customs inspector in Vorarlberg. His descendants live in South Tyrol, Hungary and the German Reich. Ignaz (died 1858), Johann von Gott's third son, was assistant to the financial district director. His daughter 4 An old, now extinct Pustertal family, whose younger line still lives on in the present-day barons of Sternbach zu Stock and Luttach. 5 The latter, a son of the famous Tyrolean freedom fighter, later field marshal lieutenant and Maria Theresa knight Phi lipp Freiherr v. Fenner, joined the revolutionary movement of 1848 and 1849, had to flee to America, but was later amnestied. His daughter Ada, an elderly but still witty and energetic woman, is the current matron of the Wolkenfteinisches aristocratic convent in Innsbruck. Rosa was married to the university professor and famous Austrian historian Dr Alfons Huber. The other descendants of this line live in Innsbruck and Styria.