Montechino Castle is located in

Montechino village Montechino is a hamlet of forty inhabitants. It is a frazione of the comune of Gropparello, in the province of Piacenza, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Geography Montechino lies in the Val Riglio, part of the Val Nure. The village is above sea l ...

, in the municipality of

Gropparello Gropparello ( Piacentino: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about south of Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) ...

, in the Riglio valley,

province of Piacenza The province of Piacenza ( it, provincia di Piacenza) is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city Piacenza. As of 2016, it has a total population of 286,572 inhabitants over an area of , giving it a popu ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is situated on the crest of Monte Occhino

hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not a ...

, overlooking the Riglio river. Castello montechino torrione

History

Montechino Castle was built in the 12th century as a strategic outpost to defend the Riglio valley. The

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

controlled an important

trade route A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a sing ...

between northern and southern Europe. It served those on pilgrimage to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

or to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

, in

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. According to the

Enciclopedia Treccani The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' (Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language e ...

, after returning from the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

the Confalonieri family from

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

took control of the

in the early 12th century. In 1393

Gian Galeazzo Visconti Gian Galeazzo Visconti (16 October 1351 – 3 September 1402), was the first duke of Milan (1395) and ruled the late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance. He also ruled Lombardy jointly with his uncle Bernabò. He was the found ...

, Duke of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

, while solidifying his control of the area, conferred the feudal title of Count and the lands surrounding Montechino to the family as vassal allies. In 1492 they sold the

and all its land in the valley to the aristocratic Nicelli family who continued to improve the property. By 1842 it was controlled by Count Marazzani. In 1944, during the latter stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in the

italian resistance movement The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Socia ...

a famous Italian partisan division occupied the

using it as their headquarters in their fight against

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation. In 1955 it was bought by Monsignor Stefano Fumagalli, archbishop of San Polo, who converted the castle to a retirement home for nuns. In 1986 it returned to private hands and was restored it to its original design as a stately home.

Description

The

was built from large rectangular stones. It features an archetypical defensive tower topped by battlements with Guelphs merlon. These fortifications were needed during the 14th and 15th centuries when powerful rival families fought for control over the region. Still visible are the original decorative gables, the foundations of a medieval bridge, and the original

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of movea ...

apparatus.

Sources

* Carmen Artocchini. ''Castelli piacentini'' - Edizioni TEP Piacenza 1967 * ''Enciclopedia Treccani'' - Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana - Roma * Daniela Guerrieri. ''Castelli del Ducato di Parma e Piacenza'' - NLF

External links

Felice Ziliani, commander of Distaccamento Ursus Divisione partigiana Val d'Arda

Azzoni Emilio, partisan of Distaccamento Ursus Divisione partigiana Val d'Arda
{{coord, 44.8047, N, 9.6833, E, source:wikidata, display=title Castles in Emilia-Romagna

History

Description

See also

Sources

External links