CASTLE TRAILS from Milan to Bellinzona - Guide to the Dukedom's Castles

Guide to the dukedom’s castles

On the cover Masolino da Panicale (with Lorenzo di Pietro, aka “il Vecchietta”?), Mountain landscape with cities and castles, 1435 ca, detail. Castiglione Olona, palazzo Branda Castiglioni

The book was published with the contribution of ERDF European Regional Development Fund Opportunities have no boundaries

Italian project leader Municipality of Somma Lombardo Swiss project leader Bellinzona Turismo Project partners Regione Lombardia Memoria & Progetto Giroscopio, Cultura e Impresa Nexo Cattaneo Paolo Grafiche

Editorial project Nexo, Milano Scientific Committee Memoria & Progetto Lombardia nel Rinascimento Repubblica e Cantone Ticino, Ufficio dei beni culturali Coordination Ornella Marcolongo, Maria Angela Previtera Editorial staff Elena Isella, Daniele Viscardi Iconographic research Eva Gabrieli, Melissa Nicolini Layout Valentina Zanaboni Webmaster Rossella Savio © 2012 Nexo © 2012 Castelli del ducato

Under the patronage Archivio di Stato di Milano Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana Provincia di Varese Regione Piemonte Soprintendenza Archivistica per la Lombardia Soprintendenza Archivistica per il Piemonte e la Valle d’Aosta Università degli Studi di Milano Acknowledgements Letizia Arcangeli, Cristina Bertacchi, Maria Barbara Bertini, Maria Pia Bortolotti, Pinuccia Brunella, Dimitri Brunetti, Stefania Buganza, Carlo Cairati, Maria Canella, Simona Cantone, Giuseppe Chiesi, Giorgio Chittolini, Maria Nadia Covini, Isabella Fiorentini, Gaetano Galeone, Roberto Grassi, Mirella Motta, Paolo Ostinelli, Eugenio Pintore, Micaela Procaccia, Daniela Protti, Elena Puccinelli, Claudio Salsi, Maurizio Savoja, Mario Signori.

Written by Federico Del Tredici and Edoardo Rossetti.

Federico Del Tredici wrote itineraries 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and the summary sheets concerning the castles of: Binasco, Somma Lombardo, Cassano Magnago, Fagnano Olona, Jerago con Orago, Albizzate, Castelletto sopra Ticino, Bellinzona, Besozzo, Novara, Galliate, Caltignaga, Fontaneto d’Agogna, Divignano, Oleggio, Vogogna, Domodossola, Giornico, Cannero Riviera; Edoardo Rossetti wrote itineraries 1, 2, 3, 7, 10 and the summary sheets concerning he castles of Milano, Cusago, Abbiategrasso, Bereguardo, Pavia, Gambolò, Vigevano, Cassolnovo, Cislago, Angera, Invorio, Massino Visconti, Azzate, Varese, Castiglione Olona, Venegono Superiore, Tradate, Orino, Induno Olona, Vico Morcote, Locarno.

Illustrations by Silvio Giobbio.

Translation from the Italian Franco Esposito-Soekardi for Spaziolingue www.castellidelducato.eu

ERDF European Regional Development Fund - Opportunities have no boundaries

CASTLE TRAILS from Milan to Bellinzona Guide to the dukedom’s castles by Federico Del Tredici Edoardo Rossetti

Somma Lombardo – whose municipal authority acts as the project’s Italian leader – is the highest town in the Milano – Domodossola railway line. At the back of my office, a square-shaped stone staircase, originating from an ancient Roman tower, leads further up.

From up there the view sweeps across a wide area, encompassing the vast expanse of the Piedmont plains stretching from the Alps to the Ticino valley, before becoming Lombardy in the Malpensa moorland, nature’s gift to man for his conquest of space.

The Malpensa brughiera was land for huntsmen and for farmers who here laid their hopes for their toils. Here the great Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni strolled, caressing the evergreen brooms with his walking stick, while the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio recalled the excitement of moorland gallops, dedicating to his pack of hunting hounds many a memorable stanza. In this land of mine, a work of art stands out for its mightiness, the astounding expression of an age of gruesome conflict, unforgiving hate, implacable enmity, a place that dominated the passage from Milan to Sempione Pass: the castles of the marquises Visconti di San Vito.

I crossed the ravelin for the first time in 1963 when I was ten. Holding dad’s hands, I was literally swallowed into the courtyard of the Armigeri, the “arms bearers.” To the right, the 14th century portico and to the left the sheer wall, today as exciting as ever thanks to the presence of two imposing sculptures by the artist and friend Giancarlo Sangregorio.

Life, as many have affirmed, imitates literature – and so does the history of this illustrious family, with its coat-of-arms green and white with snake, that lived within these walls. Life though runs much faster than literature.

Don Gabrio of the marquises of Visconti di San Vito – the last of the noble lineage – showed an awareness more audacious than would be required to renovate a poetic language or to make up a tale by establishing a Foundation, bearing his name, that today has the task of managing the castle, a place steeped in history and culture, open to the city and the world.

History is our mirror; it is our starting point; a repository of wisdom from which to draw instruction – it is for this reason we want to turn it into better account through the Castles of the dukedom, a cultural and tourist project that takes us from the Castello Sforzesco of Milan to the Castles of Bellinzona, focusing on lands that were at one time under the sway of the Visconti and Sforza families.

In these areas there are places that are strongly attractive because they appear to be radically different and others that enchant because they are familiar at first sight, almost as if they were home. To know is often – platonically speaking – equivalent to knowing again, but the truly fascinating path is the one we are culturally embarking upon: it is the return path, an odyssey back to our history.

Today, Bellinzona, Lugano, Varese, Como and Milan have developed “Ticino City,” a single entity linked by a network of highways and peopled by daily and seasonal workers, tourists and students.

A territorial system not endowed by a governance of its own but which relies on spontaneous and unintentional cooperation between local and national systems founded on history and on the awareness of having shared over the centuries intentions, projects and truths.

All that remains for me to do is to wish bon voyage to this cultural and tourist project that sees us work closely together with our Swiss friends, bearing well in mind that when you travel certainties, values, sentiments and expectations are lost and found.

Guido Pietro Colombo Mayor of Somma Lombardo

In the capacity of Swiss project leader, I’m honoured to present the outcome of an intensive work of research and montage that is not exclusively focused on the history of single castles, palaces and fortifications, but which has highlighted the links between them – links at one time very strong because those places were all part of single dukedom.

Today these castles are divided by regions and even states, and it becomes difficult to imagine they were part of a single state and how life must have been then.

Yet, at the same time, these important monuments seem to suggest just that.

When I stroll around my town, Bellinzona, I get the impression of being in medieval times, where nothing had essentially changed and the space-time line is so thin as to be indistinguishable.

I’ve been firmly behind this guide. We couldn’t rely exclusively on the suggestion given by and majesty of the artistic heritage handed down to us by the dukes of Milan, we had to contextualise it, trace links, connections and original functions.

This illustrated historic guide, which will provide a wider audience with the opportunity to gain an insight on the history of the Visconti-Sforza dukedom and of its fortifications, is part of the Castles in the Dukedom interregional project that I also firmly believe in, because it allows to retrace the old links that bound us while giving us the opportunity to join forces in a bid to promote a shared heritage.

It is a historical and geographic heritage Bellinzona had already consolidated in the middle ages but which continues to be very much alive behind the stern and rigorous aspect of a Lombardy town deep inside the alpine arch that acts as a crossroads where the Latin and Germanic worlds meet along that trunk road par excellence that is the San Gottardo.

More than anything else, its three castles of incomparable might and masculine beauty embody centuries of history made by the Romans and the Longobards, the Swiss and the Milanese. This fine heritage is part of a wider framework involving other areas of the Ticino and Lombardy outlined by the ten itineraries proposed by the guide to what was the dukedom of Milan.

Historical insights, artistic masterpieces, curiosities enrich the tourist and thematic itineraries, turning each castle trail into a truly suggestive one for tourists.

I wish Castle trails from Milan to Bellinzona. Guide to the dukedom’s castles all the best, hoping that new editions will be required to meet the readers’ growing interest.

Flavia Marone Chairperson of Ente turistico di Bellinzona e dintorni

We at Regione Piemonte are very proud of having contributed to the making of Castle trails from Milan to Bellinzona. Guide to the dukedom’s castles, for this is a great opportunity to showcase the areas of Novara – famed for its castles – and Domodossola.

The broader Castles of the dukedom project provides with an opportunity to refocus on an often neglected aspect, highlighting a geographical area, beyond regional and national boundaries, through a new cultural and tourist model.

By singling out castles and fortifications as a common denominator, the project outlines a new strand connecting numerous areas of the dukedom that have thus been merged into a system thanks to the drawing up of a specific itinerary.

Focusing on the common background of these territories at one time ruled by the Visconti and the Sforza, Castles of the dukedom brings to the surface the many links that continue to thrive to this day and that can be seen in local architecture, language, tradition and cuisine, thanks to which these lands can be appreciated in many new ways.

This publication not only showcases the Piemonte Region with its castles in Novara, Galliate, Caltignaga, Fontaneto d’Agogna, Divignano, Oleggio, Vogogna and Domodossola, but also provides an account of the artistic heritage present in the area. Through research, description and the digitalisation of archives and libraries, a cultural hoard of great importance has been made available to scholars and tourists alike.

I wish all the best to this initiative: may it be the starting point of a broader cooperation on the cultural and tourist front involving Regione Piemonte, Regione Lombardia and the various territories of the Swiss Confederation.

Michele Coppola Head of the Cultural Department of Regione Piemonte

The forty-five castles of this Guide – though strong is the temptation to define the book a “narrative” – are located in a portion equivalent to what was the western strip of the ancient dukedom of Milan. A sort of ideal, overturned, triangle, at the tips of which are Pavia, in the south, Bellinzona and Domodossola, in the north. The capital, Milan, is located in a slightly unusual position. This ideal polygon includes terrain ranging from the flatlands of the Po valley, the low and highlands, the hilly strip and the alpine system. As the morphology of the terrain changes – the authors tell us – so do the materials used for the construction of the castles, besides, of course, their aspect: the brick utilised in the plains are replaced by pebbles on the hills and stones at higher altitudes. The visual perception changes, what remains unaltered is the role castles play, their symbolic value.

In collective consciousness, the castle is the place where power lies. Or, for many centuries, the place of power. The castle hosts the armed men entrusted with the task of controlling the territory, providing defence against external enemies and ensuring the loyalty of the subjects. But it is also the residence of illustrious families with its retinue of followers. Army barracks and also place of recreation, the history of these castles developed over the centuries in the dialectics between these two poles.

Many of these castles originated prior to the advent of the Visconti as military strongholds before developing into princely residences or back again to their original military mode.

In literature, these sombre strongholds, impregnable bastions, towered walls, have provided the background to tragedy, passion, adventure, betrayal, torture, duel.

Beyond their obvious artistic and architectural merit, it is their being depositories of unique stories that makes them so charming.

An allure highlighted by this Guide through a system of itineraries and descriptive summary sheets where each castle is placed within its historical and territorial context and its architectonic and artistic features explained. As for the territorial context, it has changed dramatically as a consequence of the intensive urban development of the last few decades, altering the relationship between the building and the landscape and heavily impacting the overall harmony. The added value of this book is to provide us with the pleasure of rediscovery.

We would love to imagine this book in the hands of citizens, students and families.

This is a book to be relished at home, slowly; to be enjoyed because the texts are well researched and never banal, and the iconography absolutely riveting. This book, though, is also a guide that takes us on a journey not only across a territory but also over time.

Valentina Aprea Head of the Education and Culture Department of the Regione Lombardia

Summary

13

Prefaces

19 26

1. The duke’s processions. A virtual itinerary between the castle and the Duomo of Milan The Sforza Castle, Milan

39 44 48 52 54 62

2. Travelling on the surface of the water. The court on the navigli Cusago Castle, Cusago Abbiategrasso Castle, Abbiategrasso Bereguardo Castle, Bereguardo The Visconti Castle of Pavia, Pavia Binasco Castle, Binasco

65 70 73 74 80 82 84

3. Hunting with the duke. Ducal residences in the misty Lomellina Gambolò Castle, Gambolò Vigevano The Visconti-Sforza Vigevano Castle, Vigevano Rocca Vecchia, Vigevano Palazzo Sanseverino, Vigevano Villanova di Cassolnovo Castle, Cassolnovo

89 98 104 106 108 110 112 114 116 122 126

4. In the «regions of the Viscontis». A three-part itinerary The Castle of the Visconti di San Vito, Somma Lombardo The Cassano Magnago Castle, Cassano Magnago Fagnano Olona Castle, Fagnano Olona Castelbarco Visconti Castle, Cislago Jerago Castle, Jerago con Orago Albizzate Castle, Albizzate Castelletto Castle, Castelletto sopra Ticino Rocca Borromeo, Angera Visconti Tower, Invorio The Visconti di San Vito Castle, Massino Visconti

129 137 138 140 142

5. At the dukedom’s borders. Between the castle and the town of Bellinzona Bellinzona Castelgrande, Bellinzona Montebello Castle, Bellinzona Sasso Corbaro Castle, Bellinzona

145 150 152

6. Family castles. The small aristocracy around lakes Varese and Maggiore Villa Bossi Zampolli, Azzate Palazzos Cadario and Adamoli, Besozzo

157 162 166 172 176

7. In the footsteps of the Castiglioni. A County along the Olona Masnago Castle, Varese, Masnago Borgo of Castiglione Olona, Castiglione Olona Venegono Superiore Castle, Venegono Superiore Pusterla Melzi Castle, Tradate

179 184 188 192 194 198 200

8. The “ever changing” castle landscape.

Between Ticino and Agogna in the second-half of the 15th century The Visconti-Sforza castle of Novara, Novara Galliate Castle, Galliate Caltignaga Castle, Caltignaga Fontaneto Castle, Fontaneto d’Agogna Divignano Castle, Divignano The fortified wall of Oleggio, Oleggio

203 210 213 214 216 218

9. Letters from a battle. From val d’Ossola to Giornico Castle and stronghold of Vogogna, Vogogna Domodossola Sacro Monte Calvario, Domodossola Tower and fortified walls, Domodossola Church of Santa Maria del Castello, Giornico

223 230 232 234 238 242

10. Seeking control of the pre-alpine valleys. The ambition of the old aristocracy The Orino stronghold, Orino The Medici di Marignano Castle, Induno Olona Morcote Castle, Vico Morcote The Visconti castle of Locarno, Locarno The Cannero castles, Cannero Riviera

245

Practical Information

252

Credits

This book is not the umpteenth guide to the Lombardy Region providing the usual, more or less complete, fare of historical and artistic information – this book is a tool that allows to transform a fairly straightforward tour – albeit an intelligent one – into an instance of knowledge gathering. The itineraries were not developed with a view to maximising the distance travelled within circuits that included the highest number of monuments. These itineraries were designed to enrich the knowledge of the past by including monuments in diverse states of conservation and with differing aesthetic values but historically homogeneous inasmuch as the visible and tangible traces of political institutions (the principality and the court, or the territorial fiefdom) and social groups (the great and minor aristocracy). The upper Milanese region and the area around Novara thus appear before our eyes as they were or became in the 15th century and not solely from the contemporary perspective of their economic and political development as we have been wont to perceive them.

Each itinerary investigates and expands on a different theme, offering at the same time a historical outline and reconstruction: for each stage, a summary sheet is provided containing the historical, technical and artistic information to better understand the building. Read as a whole, the itineraries offer a substantially unprecedented image of the territories between the Ticino and Lake Maggiore: a space occupied by the key players of Lombardy society – the historical Lombardy that included territories now in Piedmont, such as the presentday province of Novara – who have handed down a conspicuous heritage, at times very famous, such as the fortified compound at Castiglione Olona, at times practically unknown, as the frescoes at Albizzate and Masnago, or the ruins of Fontaneto Castle. Among its many merits, this guide offers readers with an insight of the key figures of Lombardy renaissance, such as those belonging to the territorial and manorial aristocracy, who have been all but erased from common knowledge by a historiography much too focused, on one hand, on cities, towns and the bourgeoisie and, on the other hand, on dukes and duchesses.

The extensive iconography well illustrates the monuments and facilitates understanding. The details of the frescoes, miniatures, illustrations from chronicles, present the concreteness of day-to-day life of the societies and cultures described in the texts, as in the case of the itinerary dedicated to the Battle of Giornico, where mountain warfare in a valley on the state border is explained.

We believe these itineraries can stimulate the curiosity of the tourist well versed in history or just simply curious. But it can also offer much more. By combining the concreteness of monuments and images with the abstractness of the concepts authors refer to, it can offer an understanding of history that our traditional school manuals cannot offer. An understanding of history that is at the base of any responsible choice made in connection with the associative forms of our existence: from politics to the respect for the environment and the relations between human groups.

Letizia Arcangeli Giorgio Chittolini 13

This new guide will also be much appreciated in Ticino. A tool of this breadth – in terms of content and, especially, quality – was missing, despite the proliferation of brochures, tourist leaflets, weekly exerts and illustrated papers designed to allure visitors to the tourist sites across the Canton.

Developed from an original layout, as well as the outcome of coherent and original options, the publication is far removed from those we are used to; not only because it proposes monuments that are somehow connected to each other, but also because it induces the reader to retrieve a historical dimension that is not immediately clear at first glance.

The cultural operation rests on the intention of highlighting a number of shared elements arising from the fact that the lands of Lombardy and Ticino once belonged to the dukedom of the Visconti and Sforza, albeit taking into account the numerous local factors and characteristics. The diffusion of castles and fortifications in the lands around the prealpine lakes and the valley that burrow deep into the central Alps was part of a strategy designed by the ducal power. Defended by military officials or ducal soldiers or commanded by feudal or local lords, these structures were built along the ancient routes that lead to the alpine passes. Their presence was the direct outcome of the political and economic interests that shaped these peripheral districts of the ducal state, as can be clearly understood from the guide.

Bellinzona, Giornico, Morcote and Locarno: these four localities in Ticino were singled out by the curators to illustrate the strategic plan that led the dukes in Milan to construct or reconstruct fortifications in the subalpine region. The selection of these four emerging poles in a landscape marked by the widespread presence of towers, fortresses and defensive structures allows for a closer look at the most significant monuments but also to broaden the gaze to observe social entities, resources, building activities, influential and less influential figures. The itineraries lead to grim fortresses and to the princely residences of feudal lords, but also to villages, places of worship, works of art, views that together show the salient traits of a key period in the history of a region spreading across the Italian and Swiss border.

Giuseppe Chiesi Paolo Ostinelli

15

Authors’ foreword

It is difficult not to love castles. Tower and fortifications – worn down with age, covered in moss and possibly haunted – can ignite the imagination of visitors, of all ages. They stimulate fantasy in the “romantic” mind, conjuring a past of knights and battles, feasts and damsels. It is no surprise, then, that in Italy and, above all, in Europe, castles have become favourite tourist destinations, attracting masses of visitors.

To see a “beautiful castle,” however, does not necessarily imply embarking on a journey far from home. At times little known – or buried by successive constructions – many castles and strongholds in Italy stand idle, waiting to be visited. At times all you need to do is to travel off the beaten track, while in other instances you need to be patient and train the eye so as to be in a position to spot, under the modern development, surprising traces of the old.

The aim of this guide is to provide an aid, offering readers useful information about the castle landscape across a vast area stretching from Milan to Novara and the Canton Ticino. Presently separated by international and regional borders, this territory, at one time ruled by the dukes of Milan, features several famous princely residences: from the mighty ducal strongholds in the upper Po plain to the princely castles on the hills and the fortifications guarding valleys, passes and the principal trade roads connecting northern and southern Europe. And as the terrain changes – plains, hills, mountains – so does the aspect of the fortified settlements. If mountain strongholds and fortresses are made in the same hard rock on which they are perched, in the hills the castles are constructed with pebble stones, while they are predominantly in Lombardy red brick in the vast flatlands. Marble additions – very rare and exclusively reserved for ducal residences – are a clear indication of the building’s prestige. The shapes, too, change: large quadrilaterals with towers in the plains and sinuous and even hazardous structures that follow the mountainous contours as we climb to the pre-alpine strip. The decorations inside these residences, mostly frescoes, are now reduced in fragments, and we will strive to partly reconstruct them through words. Larger painted surfaces, on the other hand, have survived in castle oratories and churches.

Specific summary sheets are dedicated to each of the most important castles investigated in the volume. These contain information about the owners and history of the sites and how they developed over the centuries. Itineraries hinging on specific themes – the ducal amusements, the politics of the large aristocratic families – will have the task of drawing these fortresses out of their “solitude”. In other words, to set as accurately possible the events relating to the single castle within the broader history of the dukedom of Milan, the period when most of these fortifications were either founded or had reached its maximum splendour.

The ghosts, alas, are missing. At least for a while. And the events narrated are less exciting and even more difficult, for these are events often related to the rise of a “modern” state, to the establishment of new ruling dynasties, to the attempt on the part of the central state to control borders, cities and lands, and to the latter’s bid to breakaway from that hold. But in these more prosaic tales readers will be able to continue questing – such is our hope – that which is most needed to grasp beauty: understanding.

17

CASTLE TRAIL 1

The duke’s processions A virtual itinerary between the castle and the Duomo of Milan MILAN

Giovan Pietro Birago, The triumph of Massimiliano Sforza, in Codice Trivulziano 2167, 1496-1499 ca.

Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana

St. George’s Day was celebrated in Milan on 23 and 24 April. On that occasion, especially under Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1466-1476), the duke’s militias descended on the city, camping out on the castle grounds (the present day Sempione park is but a tiny portion of what was at one time the sprawling ducal gardens). The duke’s soldiers would take part in tourneys and jousts at the Giovia Gate, where piazza Castello-Foro Bonaparte is now located. A solemn procession, dominated by dark red and white, would then take place, taking the Duke’s men, aligned by rank and role, to St. George’s altar at the Duomo. Starting from the castle and past the piazza, the procession first entered the Maino (via Camperio) and the Meravigli quarters, crossed the Cordusio and proceeded along the Pessina and Orefici quarters before finally arriving at the cathedral square. This is the itinerary outlined here – presently an all but virtual itinerary considering the changes that have since transformed the city’s layout.

This part of the city – intersected by the Cordusio in the direction of the Vercellina (Magenta) and Comasina (Garibaldi) gates – was radically transformed following the construction of the castle at Giovia Gate and the decision of duke Filippo Maria Visconti (1412-1447) to reside in the fortress on a permanent basis. Councillors, mercenary captains and courtesans gradually moved into this quarter, which was located near the castle and protected by special laws that barred entrance to the area to foreigners and the plague-stricken. The small clearing in front of the Visconti castle was surrounded by the elegant homes of the duke’s trusted aides and chamberlains (Oldrado Lampugnani, Andrea Birago and Francesco Landriani), while behind the count of Arona Gaspare Visconti’s palace gardens, in present day via Puccini, there was the house where the duke kept his leopards. Indeed, exotic animals that seemed to have emerged straight out of medieval bestiaries roamed the park behind the castle. In the piazza adjacent Giacomo Visconti’s residence – approximately where the Dal Verme theatre is now located – the naviglio widened to form an ample dock providing courtesans with a comfortable embarkation point.

The segment of town Filippo Maria and his court carved out remained substantially unchanged in the first-half of the Quattrocento. While the rise to power of the Sforzas saw the new duke Francesco (1450-1466) bring about changes to the castle, the sumptuous buildings in the Maino, Cusani and San Giovanni sul muro quarters witnessed a change of proprietors. The palazzo that belonged to cardinal Branda Castiglioni was taken over by the Calabria-born councillor Angelo Simonetta, soon followed by the other members of his family – chief among whom his powerful secretary Cicco – who all settled in nearby homes.

Another newcomer was the Neapolitan Roberto Sanseverino, count of Caiazzo and nephew of Francesco Sforza, who went to live close to the piazza. These prominent individuals who gravitated around the court of the Sforzas further 19

THE DUKE’S PROCESSIONS

embellished their residences. Though continuing to live in the old Visconti palazzo near the Duomo, duchess Bianca Maria Visconti often stayed with her friends and relatives (Visconti, Gallarati and del Maino) at their homes at porta Vercellina. When in December 1467, duke Galeazzo Maria moved his residence to the castle at Porta Giovia, the quarter soon saw the arrival of the Lord of Milan’s beloved cantors. And, before long, the counts of Torelli were forced to relinquish their home to Lucia Marliani, duke Sforza’s mistress.

However, the most radical changes to the urban layout took place under the regency of Ludovico il Moro (1480-1494). In 1492, when work for the construction of piazza Vigevano was well underway, the duke ordered the demolition of the homes that overlooked castle square. The aim was to align the shapeless basin with uniformly shaped buildings. At the same time, Francesco Landriani’s residence was confiscated and handed over to Ludovico il Moro’s secretary Marchesino Stanga, a young and very wealthy man from Cremona who acted as the “minister for culture” in the Sforzas’ policy of artistic patronage. The building that was home to the secretary became the most beautiful in Milan: the rooms and the loggias were decorated with Roman histories painted

by Bramantino, while the doors and chimneys were the object of the attention of

View of Milan, end of the 15th century. Milan, Chiaravalle Abbey, chapter hall. It is possible to view the Sforza Castle on the right and the Duomo, under construction, at the centre

At the park’s edge Giovanni Battista Clarici, a detail from Map of the surrounds of Milan, 1600-1682. Milan, Civica Raccolta delle Stampe Achille Bertarelli

Though the old ducal park – in the area closest to the castle that was kept as a garden, partly occupied by farmland and farmhouses and partly covered in woodland and used as hunting ground – spread over a huge area in northwest Milan along a perimeter of over 15 kilometres, the garden itself was enclosed, within an area having a circumference of approximately five kilometres between the castle and Cassino, by a brick wall

20

of the height of approximately 2,5 metres along which there were eight gates. It should be observed that Milan within-the-walls had a perimeter of nearly seven kilometres, while the Redefosso (a fortified external canal) surrounded the city and its quarters for approximately 12 kilometres. In the south, the garden bordered with the Santa Maria delle Grazie complex, while in an area that is not possible to identify with accuracy, although it may have been where the Pagano underground train station is today, there stood “La Delizia” of Cassino, a villa endowed with fishtanks, pavilions, labyrinths and winding arbours constructed for the leisure of the duchesses. To the north, the park spread beyond the Portello, all the way to Villapizzone and the Garegnano charterhouse. To the east, it touched the suburbs of Sant’Anna (largo Foppa-via della Moscova) and of the Ortolani (on one side of corso Sempione: via Peschiera-via Cagnola).

CASTLE TRAIL 1

21

THE DUKE’S PROCESSIONS

Leonardo da Vinci, Study for the stage design for the Danae by Baldassarre Taccone, 1496. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

the workshop of the sculptor Gian Cristoforo Romano at that time engaged in completing Gian Galeazzo Visconti’s monumental tomb at the Charterhouse of Pavia. From the green marbled mullioned windows on the building’s façade, the court was able to watch the jousts taking place on the piazza. Opposite palazzo Marchesino, the Moro demolished the old residential complex that had been built by the Viscontis and constructed the Broletto Nuovissimo, the new grain auction house. Taking up residence next to the Stanga’s was the count of Caiazzo, Giovanni Francesco Sanseverino, son of Roberto. It was here that Leonardo designed the stage setting for Baldassare Taccone’s Danae relying extensively of extraordinary special effects. In those same years, Leonardo was overseeing the project for the construction of Francesco Sforza’s equestrian monument, which most likely was due to be installed in the new piazza. Work on the huge horse was interrupted when the Moro handed over the bronze that had been set aside for the monument to his brother-in-law Ercole d’Este who used it to make cannons. The project was ultimately abandoned when Gascon soldiery in April 1500 devastated the horse’s terracotta model that had been made at Arengo’s court.

As part of the preparations in 1494 for the royal wedding between Bianca Maria Sforza and Emperor Maximilian Hapsburg, the streets around the castle received a facelift. Along the route of the wedding procession accompanying the bride to the cathedral, the wooden structures that were a recurrent feature of medieval towns (turrets, kiosks and porticos) were eliminated, the height and lining of the gutters were standardised, while the façades were not only whitewashed but also decorated with historical and mythological scenes. The nuptial cortege was a grand affair. Where the frescoes had not been finished, the façades were covered by precious arrases. A particularly fascinating spot must have been where the Maino quarter (via Camperio) intersected with the Meravigli street. Here the building that was home to Ambrogio del Maino, cousin of the bride and the dukes’, was totally renovated for the occasion; its painted façade and new marble gate (no longer existing) must have been a sight to behold from the very narrow via Camperio. Just past the intersection with via Meravigli (leading to via Magenta), where a 22

Leonardo da Vinci, Study for the Sforza monument, 1489.

Windsor, The Royal Collection

CASTLE TRAIL 1

Giovanni Ambrogio De’ Predis, Bianca Maria Sforza, 1493 ca. Washington, National Gallery of Art

23

THE DUKE’S PROCESSIONS

grey post-war construction now stands, Pietro Gallarati, another of the dukes’ kin, had commissioned for his palazzo a cycle of frescoes depicting Roman histories. The work was entrusted to Troso da Lodi, a painter from Monza, who created effects that one would not hesitate today to call tri-dimensional. The ability to create perspective in the drawings within the frames produced the forceful illusion of characters in grandiloquent imperial processions, of armours and of decapitated heads heaving out of the wall, to crash down on the road. Further ahead, past the Cordusio, were the homes of goldsmiths and armour makers whose fabled wares had made Milan famous across Europe.

Walking along these streets and piazzas, the atmosphere of the Milan of the Sforzas can be relived only with the imagination. Of the splendid buildings that connected the castle to the city, only one survives today: the Piccolo Teatro at 2, via Rovello. A recent restoration can be praised for having brought back to life a rare 15th century corner in the city. One of the most coveted in Milan, the house belonged to count Francesco Bussoni, aka Carmagnola, before being handed down to count Pietro dal Verme. At the death of the latter, the Moro reserved it for Cesare Sforza, his son born out of the duke’s amorous relation with the famous Cecilia Gallerani, traditionally believed to be the woman depicted by Leonardo da Vinci in the Lady with Ermine. Though the building was reconstructed between 1491 and 1499, it remained unfinished. The main entrance was from narrow via Rovello, which was very different from what can be seen today following the opening of via Dante, the wide road which was inaugurated in the 19th century. Conceived as the atrium of a Roman house, the beautiful courtyard at the entrance was surrounded by no longer extant monochrome frescoes depicting Francesco Sforza’s feats. Out of that impressive decorative array, only a small and elegant harpy’s head survives from the frieze in the large ground floor hall.

Bramantino’s workshop, Frieze with harpies, 1502 ca. Milan, Piccolo Teatro

24

CASTLE TRAIL 1

La Gualtiera

The façade of villa Simonetta, Milan

Among the villas surrounding the perimeter of the ducal park not only to the north towards porta Vercellina (Magenta) but also beyond porta Comasina, only “La Gualtiera” survives. Now known as villa Simonetta, it is located some three kilometres from the castle, at 36, via Stilicone. The Bentivoglios, the Cagnolas, the Pusterlas, the Ruscas, the Visconti di Sommas, all owned cottages with garden and orchards that contributed to widen the green area north of Milan. Present day villa Simonetta was the outcome of a 16th century refurbishment by governor Ferrante Gonzaga who enlarged the existing but smaller 15th century cottage. Though currently the villa is devoid of its gardens and loggias and commands a view over the rail junction and Ghisol-

fa bridge, a few late 15th-century traces have survived, namely the capitals and the chapel. In the latter, Bernardo Zenale painted a pathos-filled Deposition of which, however, only a few ghostly outlines remain. It was commissioned by Gualtiero Bascapè (d. 1508), a loyal follower of the Moro as well as judge at the customs house. Following his political decline in 1499-1500, Gualtiero underwent a profound religious crisis and, after having regained the property that had been confiscated by the French, retired to private life in the villa, moving definitely out from his residence at castle square.

Here, alongside his friend and spiritual guide, Andrea Ferrari, he spent the last two years of his life studying the Holy Scriptures.

25

THE SFORZA CASTLE

CASTELLO DI PORTA GIOVIA MUNICIPALITY: Milan TYPOLOGY: ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact with consolidation works CURRENT USE: monumental complex, home to a museum, library and exhibition hall

26

Although an early fortified structure was constructed near the ancient Giovia Gate probably around 1368

by Galeazzo II Visconti (1354-1378), the lord of Milan continued to live in the sumptuous palace at Pavia, leaving the day-to-day running of the capital to his brother Bernabò, who lived in the large palazzo at porta Romana. Succeeding his father Galeazzo II in 1378 as the first duke of Milan (1395-1402), Gian Galeazzo Visconti initiated consistent works on the external perimeter of the urban walls in an area then already known as the zardinum («the garden»). The Visconti started to reside at the castle for long periods of time.

Following the brief and not very significant presence of the young and unlucky duke Giovanni Maria (14021412), assassinated near the church of San Gottardo in corte, it was Filippo Maria who carried out the crucial reconstruction work that ultimately led to the definition of a complex large enough to host a court.

Filippo Maria’s death in 1447 opened a period of profound institutional crisis for the dukedom considering that the he had not left legitimate male heirs. In the warm summer of 1447, as the duke’s body rotted in the castle, his aides and courtiers ransacked the ducal apartments and treasure. Before long, a number of the city’s prominent citizens proclaimed the Ambrosiana Republic (1447-1449) so that it was now the turn of the homes of the courtiers, mercenary captains and families within the ducal entourage to be ransacked. The part of the fortress on the side of the city, which was the oldest segment of the castle, was razed to the ground and on its place a sort of public hostel was constructed where free bread was distributed to the poor.

The enormous park was let out to count Vitaliano Borromeo and used for agricultural purposes.

Following a victorious military cam-

MILAN

paign that saw the cities under the Visconti succumb one by one, early in March 1450 Francesco Sforza – who had married in Cremona in 1441 Bianca Maria Visconti, the illegitimate daughter of duke Filippo Maria and the noblewoman Agnese del Maino – entered Milan, and was proclaimed duke, also on the solemn promise that the fortress would not be rebuilt at porta Giovia. Having gone around the resistance of a segment of the citizenship, restoration and reconstruction work started as early as 1451 before proceeding in full earnest the following year when a lord of the castle and a fully armed garrison were once again placed in what was now a Sforza fortress. The court of Francesco and Bianca Maria was established at the Arengo, the old Visconti palace near the Duomo, which was under construction. The duke, councillors and courtiers, though, were once again making full

use of the park and living if not in the castle itself at least in the comfortable homes of the Visconti aristocracy located around the fortress.

The huge construction site saw the involvement of Antonio Averulino, a.k.a. Filarete, the architect from Florence, Bartolomeo Gadio, the engineer from Cremona, and Benedetto Ferrini also from Tuscany, besides an interminable host of master builders and military engineers hired locally or from the ranks that came from central Italy on the footsteps of Francesco da Cotignola (Sforza) in his itinerant military career.

Following Francesco Sforza’s death in 1466, Bianca Maria Visconti’s efforts to influence the government of her son Galeazzo Maria were thwarted, and the duke succeeded in severing links with his mother and her powerful entourage of parents and friends. As a tangible sign that links had been broken off, the young

Overview of the Sforza Castle with the Duomo on the background

Francesco Galli (aka Francesco Napoletano), Madonna with Child (Madonna Lia), 1495 circa, detail with the Sforza Castle.

Milan, Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco 27

Galeazzo Maria’s Chapel Not as sumptuous as the now lost chapel at Pavia, the ducal place of worship in Milan is nevertheless a rare item of the fifth duke’s commissions. Frescoed by Giacomino Vismara, Stefano de Fedeli, Bonifacio Bembo with their respective pupils, the chapel (Hall 12 of the Museum of Ancient Art) was located at the centre of the ducal apartment, between the duke’s room (Hall 11) and the Elefante portico. A jubé, or drilled partition wall, divided the large ground floor hall, acting as its ideal backdrop. The saints depicted in the chapel had been carefully selected by the duke’s confessor so that no protector of the Visconti-Sforza lineage would be left out. The long procession of saints was set against a background of golden laminas applied on stuccoes forming a modular geometrical design, while for the Resurrection on the ceiling, the Tuscany architect Benedetto Ferrini had given local painters a sketch of

a Florentine iconography he had imported to Milan. The chapel was one of many in the castle.

On the upper floor, at the far end of the green hall, there existed a parallel altar (Hall XVI of the Furniture Collection); in the courtyard opposite the chapel the San Donato (Hall 3 of the Museum of Ancient Art) had been decorated in the same years with another Resurrection (here the ceiling presents a starry sky and a fine mountainous landscape): while in the Clock Tower, parallel to the San Donato chapel, the powerful captain of the guards Ambrogino da Longhignana had arranged another place of worship with frescoes by Pietro Marchesi and Vincenzo Pestegala, of which a some fragments remain.

duke, accompanied by a small band of courtiers, chancellors and administrative officers, moved to the castle in December 1467. An initial series of improvised restoration work was followed up by two significant reconstruction campaigns supervised by the duke in person. While the second campaign of works (1471-1474) involved the full decoration of the ducal apartments, a project was being conceived for the construction of an equestrian monument for Francesco Sforza to be placed in the square opposite the castle. On 26 December 1476, duke Galeazzo was assassinated near the church of Santo Stefano in brolo. In the turbulent regency that followed, Bona di Savoia and the first secretary Cicco Simonetta, aided by Ludovico Gonzaga, marquis of Mantova, focused on strengthening the castle’s 28

Lombardy painter, Head in the ancient style, 1473, detail. Milan, Sforza Castle, eastern wall of the ducal chapel

defences. When after a two-year period of bitter family struggle and savage contrasts, duchess Bona reinstated Ludovico il Moro in the castle (September 1479), Cicco Simonetta, who for forty years had been at the helm of the Sforza administrative machine and government, was arrested and beheaded at Pavia castle on 30 October 1480. He was replaced by Bartolomeo Calco, the duchess’ secretary, while Filippo Eustachi was confirmed as lord of the castle. The garrison was placed under Ambrogino da Longhignana, a powerful mercenary captain.

Eustachi, the Moro and the nobleman Pallavicino Pallavicini formed a regency council depriving of authority Bona, who was confined in the castle of Abbiategrasso and governing the dukedom from the castle throughout the 1480s.

MILAN

After a failed plot orchestrated by the lord of the castle Eustachi, aided by his brother-in-law and personal secretary to the Moro Aloisio Terzaghi, the Ludovico, relying on a group of young chamberlains and secretaries set up a sort of shadow government that managed state affairs on behalf of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1476-1494). As the Moro’s policies became ever more sordid, the castle hosted the sumptuous weddings of the young duke with his cousin Isabella of Aragon, of Ludovico il Moro with Beatrice d’Este and of Alfonso d’Este with Anna Sforza. In 1494, Ludovico Maria Sforza received the long yearned imperial investiture to the dukedom of Milan and the providential death Gian Galeazzo allowed the Moro to accomplish the final and definite coup de main by ascending to the ducal throne. The wedding of Bianca Maria Sforza with the Emperor, in exchange of an exorbitant dowry of 300,000 ducats that was a sort of payoff to ensure the

ducal investiture; Ludovico’s installation ceremony (26 May 1495); and the hospitality shown to the king of France Charles VIII (to whom the Moro opened the gates of Milan to allow him to descend against his Aragonese parents) were some of the other solemn events to flaunt opulence the most unbridled and to renovate the entire urban structure of the area around the castle.

In 1497, the very young duchess

Façades of 15th century building around the Sforza Castle drill ground, Milan

Drill ground of the Sforza Castle, on the right Bona’s Tower and on the left the windowless façade of the Rocchetta

29

Beatrice d’Este died of childbirth, plunging the court in mourning as dark clouds hung over the dukedom.

State finances had taken a heavy blow following the imperial wedding of 1494, and the government was forced to sell-off state revenues to privates to raise funds. A segment of the Lombardy aristocracy was unhappy with the government’s subversive political management, the deprivation of power of state structures and the granting of favours to the Moro’s cronies. In April 1498, Charles VIII of France died and was succeeded by the young and ambitious Louis d’Orléans (Louis XII).

The new king advanced claims to the

dukedom of Milan because he descended from Valentina Visconti, who was the legitimate daughter of duke Gian Galeazzo. The “bel ducato” was caught in the stranglehold of the alliance between France and the Republic of Venice and the tacit indifference of the emperor and the other powers in the Italian peninsula. In August 1499, the situation precipitated. The loss of the fortified town of Alessandria, the imminent invasion of the Venetians at Ghiera d’Adda and the assassination of the powerful treasurer Antonio Landriani, sparked the revolt of the Milanese many of whom ransacked the homes of the courtiers and the

«The rooms by the garden» and the Asse Hall When the Moro officially became the duke of Milan the entire castle was significantly restored. Work was completed on the side of the Rocchetta courtyard towards the duke’s apartments although the restructuring mostly focused on the ground floor rooms where Gian Galeazzo and Isabella lived. In 1495, the old jetty, the piancheta, linking the ducal apartments to the Italian garden – created in the area between the castle and the Ghirlanda – was widened, and a threeroom loggia was constructed on top of it connected to the Asse Hall (Halls 9 and 10 of the Museum of Ancient Art). Probably in that same year, artists started decorating one of the study rooms with Roman histories. In the summer of 1496, the Moro complained because «the painter who was depicting these rooms of ours caused some scandal for which he has made himself absent,» and tried to secure – seven years before his sister-in-law Isabella d’Este had done for her own study – the services of the Perugino to complete the decoration of the study rooms. At the death of the duchess, the decoration scheme for the rooms changed and there were

30

plans for the creation of a saleta negra, «black room,» a room specifically dedicated to the memory of Beatrice who was no more. It may well be that Leonardo da Vinci worked in the saleta negra because in the spring of 1498 he was most certainly involved with the decoration of the room in the so-called Asse Tower (Hall 8), near the study rooms. The woodwork covering the walls for Galeazzo Maria Sforza was dismounted, allowing Leonardo and his aides to create a continuous decoration that transformed the room into an enormous arbour, a «chamber of trees» with the thick vegetation curling up into intricate knots, bearing, here and there, the recurrent heraldic and celebrative plaques. The vault was seriously damaged by restorations and little of it can be fully appreciated, but the most outstanding portion of the fresco is near the pavement where the magnificent rocks and damp roots reveal to the full Leonardo’s research into nature.

The Sforza coat-of-arms, 1498 circa. Milan, Sforza Castle, vault in the Asse room

MILAN

duke’s favourites who lived by the castle and in the Grazie quarter.

On 2 September, the duke left the castle for the imperial court at Innsbruck, but not before bidding farewell to «la Dama», to Beatrice, whose tomb had been raised to the church choir and covered with a golden drape. Part of the duke’s treasure made its way to Como with the Moro. The French entered town without firing a shot and the lord of the castle sold the fortress to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who was at the head of the French troops, on 17 September. What remained of the state treasure and of the precious hangings was divided between Trivulzio, da Corte, Antonio Maria Pallavicini and Francesco Bernardino Visconti.

The French government led by the Guelph Trivulzio found resistance in the Ghibelline aristocracy and within a few months had ended up displeasing the Milanese. At the same time, the Moro succeeded in putting together an army and moved down to Trento with the intention of recapturing Milan. The Sforza army entered Milan in January 1500, once again obtaining the support of the people and the majority of the aristocracy. The castle, though, remained in the control of the French who launched forays into nearby homes and blasted cannon shots on the city.

The decisive battle took place in Novara. The Swiss, who had been hired by the Moro, unexpectedly defected, and the duke was captured as he attempted to escape. Brought to France, he lived the rest of his life in prison. Milan had by then become a city with practically no men as most of the Ghibelline aristocrats and their followers had gathered around the Moro at Novara. And when news came in about the rout «all homes [...] of some quality were sacked by the French and the Italians who were at the castle and who

entered the homes without tumult and took away the best things,» and the daughters and wives of the Milanese gentlemen who had not sought refuge in monasteries in quick time «were made dishonest more than the others, more so the married ones.».

The castle was irremediably downgraded to the role of military fortress, while the French demolished the piazza and the porticos the Moro had built. Having lost its courtly function, the edifice wasn’t utilised as a ducal residence not even under the shortlived rule of Massimiliano Sforza (1512-1515). The castle, though, would be reoccupied by Francesco II Sforza (1521-1535). Although the new duke was not particularly fond of the ancient fortress – where he even ended up being confined during his heroic resistance against the Spaniards (1525-1526) – it was he who nevertheless carried the last series of ineffective restoration works in the

Castellum Mediolanense, in Topographia Italiae, 1688.

Milan, Civica Raccolta delle Stampe Achille Bertarelli. On the foreground the bastioned star-shaped fortification

31

The Rocchetta portico at the Sforza Castle, Milan

32

ducal apartments in 1534 to mark the arrival of the child bride Cristina of Denmark (granddaughter of the Emperor Charles V). At his death, the dukedom returned definitely among the imperial possessions and was handed over to the Spaniards with the hereditary succession of Charles V. Most of the governors of the state of Milan preferred to live in the old Visconti palace located on cathedral square (the Arengo court now palazzo Reale) so that the castle progressively became in all effects an army barracks. Nearly all the beautiful houses around the castle were razed to the ground to make way for the construc-

tion of a star-shaped bastioned fortification that separated, once and for all, the castle from the rest of the city. This military function was maintained all the way to the years following the birth of the Italian state. The plans put forward during the Napoleonic age to reintegrate the fortress within the fabric of the city were not implemented and there were even talks, towards the second-half of the 19th century, to altogether demolish the edifice.

Starting from 1887, the ducal court was designated for museum use. Progressively the castle absorbed most of the public art collections, namely the Pinacoteca, the Public Library of Art, the Raccolta Vinciana, the Public Archive of Photography, the Design Cabinet, the Numismatic, Medals and Coins Cabinet, the Ancient Egypt Museum, the Prehistoric Museum, the “Achille Bertarelli” Collection of Prints, the Public Historic Archive and Trivulziana Library. The castle, according to the plans of Luca Beltrami, who also supervised its restoration, was to become one of Milan’s prominent cultural centres. That which ensued has been a history of museum setups and not short-lived renovations carried out by passing dukes. Over the years, the castle witnessed the housing of the collections of Luca Beltrami, Giorgio Nicodemi and the famous one belonging to the BBPR studio, while the pinacoteca is now home to the recent collections of Albini-Helg-Piva and Valter Palmieri.

The castle has a quadrilateral shape, with two circular and two squareshaped towers, the latter facing the park. The structure is divided in two large rectangular blocks, cut by what must have been the original path of the city walls and moat. Behind the main façade, with the angular “a burchioni” towers (ashlar-work in the shape of a diamond tip) and the famous multi-storeyed tower that was redesigned by Beltrami, the first

MILAN

block is entirely occupied by the large courtyard or drill ground. The second part of the complex is in turn divided in two further segments: the square-shaped Rocchetta to the west and the ducal court to the east, at one time two separate and completely detached complexes. Overlooking the drill ground are Bona’s Tower and the adjacent Clock Tower, one acting as a prop for an edge of the Rocchetta and the other – placed where the ancient Giovia Gate once stood – acting as access to the ducal court. On the left there is the thick and continuous wall of the Rocchetta, while on the right the façade is punctuated by the many windows of the ducal apartments. The Rocchetta courtyard (approximately 37 metres per side) is lined on three wings by porticos and linked by a communication trench on wooden brackets leading to the main courtyard. The northwestern wings are the oldest and hinge on Castle Tower, aka Treasure

Tower, while the eastern wing leading to the ducal court are newer.

The ducal palace proper is U-shaped and structured around the internal courtyard. Acting as a backdrop to the shorter side of the Elefante Portico – named after some fragments of an exotic Sforza age decoration – the sombre building is softened on the north-western edge by the portico

The Rocchetta courtyard of the Sforza Castle, Milan.

Observe the diversity of the three façades

13 January 1490, the Feast of Paradise For the wedding of duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Isabella d’Aragon – celebrated in a lower key due to the death of the bride’s wife and the wishes of the Moro who relegated the nephew to a lower profile at official ceremonies – took place in the large hall on the upper floor (Hall 16 of the Furniture Collection), which was reserved for such one-off events. Under a frame of verzura (vegetables) and fruit, the walls were covered in satin and decorated with scenes on canvas depicting «ancient histories» and Francesco Sforza’s victorious deeds. At the centre of the hall, a large stage was set up, covered with precious textiles. While on the shorter side of the hall on the opposite side of the entrance where one of the altar of the duke’s chapel was located, a satin curtain was set up to conceal an extraordinary stage machine. On 13

February 1490, the famous Feast of Paradise took place in this hall. The stage director, set designer and costume maker was Leonardo da Vinci. The following description was provided by the Ferrara ambassador: «Paradixo was made similar to a half egg, whose interior was lined in gold, with a very large number of lights acting as stars, some of which were unmoving to represent the seven planets arranged from top to bottom according to their size. Around the edge of ditto half circle there were the twelve signs, with lights from within the glass that made for a gallant and beautiful sight; and in that paradixo were many sounds and singing sweet and suave».

Leonardo da Vinci, Study for stage costume, 1490. Windsor, The Royal Collection

33

Luca Beltrami: to invent or to reconstruct?

One of the cylindrical towers of the Sforza Castle at the time of the restoration work carried out at the end of the 19th century.

Milan, Civico Archivio Fotografico

The architect Luca Beltrami (1854-1933) studied at the newly-established Milan Polytechnic under Camillo Boito. Following a brief study and working stint in Paris, where he took part in the restoration of the Hôtel de Ville, he returned to Italy where he took up teaching at the Accademia di Brera and at the Polytechnic and where he won the competition for the façade of the Duomo and for the restructuring of palazzo Marino and piazza della Scala. Starting 1884, he was committed in various fronts, including the political one. And while the debate was raging about the need for an “Italian” architectural style, Beltrami obtained the support of the Lombardy historical society and thus launched a campaign to save the castle from partial or total demolition following an urban redevelopment plan. It was only after 1893 that Beltrami

34

focused on the restoration of the castle. As experimented elsewhere (Soncino and Pandino), the architect believed that the restoration of an old structure was not exclusively about reconstructing in an ideal manner its style as sustained by the Frenchman Eugène Viollet-le-Duc especially in his work for the castle of Coucy, the walls at Carcassonne and the restorations at Pierrefonds. Beltrami believed in a restoration that was “historical” in the sense that the stratification of events and changes undergone by the building must be duly taken into account.

Beltrami’s positivist approach materialised in a series of archival and stratigraphic researches aimed at identifying the real face of the of the Sforza castle. The outcome of this research was the monumental Il castello di Milano (Castrum Portae Jovis) sotto il dominio dei Visconti e degli Sforza, MCCCLXVIII-MDXXXV, Milan, Ulrico Hoepli, 1894, which continues to this day to be an invaluable source of information for those wishing to study the castle. A decade of restoration work followed which gave to the castle its current form. Other books were published outlining the nature of the other interventions, namely the Moro’s jetty and the Filarete Tower, and further developing the relationship between reconstruction and historical documentation.

Beltrami’s commitment to the project was such that in 1903 he auctioned his private art collection to raise funds for the reconstruction of the central tower, which was dedicated to king Umberto I. The outcome is no doubt a false, but an assessment on the castle’s present form cannot be made without taking into account Beltrami’s attempt to bring back the castle to its original historic layout.

MILAN

with overhanging loggetta that marked the original staircase. The façade opposite the park features a succession of large gothic-like windows, and was at one time protected by a further curtain wall called the Ghirlanda, «the wreath,» connected to the quadrilateral block by the two imposing advance defences, the Santo Spirito (Holy Ghost), on the west, and the Carmine (Carmel), on the east. Of the first advanced defence there survives the imposing bulk along the wall overlooking Cadorna station, while of the Ghirlanda only part of the angular towers and porta del Soccorso remain – almost as if they were the romantic ruins providing the scenic backdrop for Sempione park. An impressive underground pathway runs all along the moat, linking by way of communication trenches and passages the advance defences, the external towers and the gate leading to the park. These underground pathways were part of the formidable defensive system of the castle, which was believed to be impregnable.

It is practically impossible to reconstruct with precision the original aspect of the Visconti castle. The segment of the edifice beyond the public canal in the direction of the park must have followed the present day layout and acted originally as a defensive line for the fortified Ghirlanda. While the Rocchetta must have acted as the castle proper.

Descriptions dating to 1438 report that the ducal courtyard was probably where a building with at least two towers stood – a building whose open spaces were in the direction of the internal and external gardens by the second moat. The walling of Filippo Maria’s palace was probably painted in green or black and green lozenges. The duke’s chambers were along the eastern wing towards the Carmine, probably in what became the duchesses’ apartments. Duke

Visconti’s sleeping chamber was decorated with a frieze painted partly by Giovanni da Vaprio and partly «decorated in relief» with seventeen shields in gold and silver painted poplar wood. A large wooden balcony overlooked the moat and the gardens that had been created between the castle and the Ghirlanda. Other balconies and jutting loggias softened the external aspect of that part of the edifice, establishing a direct link between the chambers inside and the green outside. In a lawn nearby, a marble fountain taken from the old Visconti palace at the

The Umberto I tower, aka the Filarete Tower of the Sforza Castle, Milan, reconstructed by Luca Beltrami

35

The loggetta by Benedetto Ferrini at the Sforza Castle, Milan

36

Arengo was mounted: it had an angel and a gilded weathervane in the shape of the Visconti viper. Similar weathervanes decorated the towers and the chimney tops of the castle. Among the chambers, antechambers and rooms there must have also been the one the duke filled with water so that he could refresh himself in the summer heat. The chamber inside were mostly frescoed in white and green and decorated with heraldic patterns and achievements.

According to the historian Pier Candido Decembrio, the rooms had very few carpets, barring the purple ones that were unrolled in solemn occasions. The duke did not like being surrounded by too many arrases or silverware. A number of cottages as well as the falconry probably lined the banks of the Nirone between the castle and the church of Sant’Ambrogio ad nemus. In the direction of the city, the castle’s shape became less regular than what Beltrami imagined, and the fortifications

crossed a number of other constructions, namely the church of San Donato, Chancery House, the Council or Gaspare Visconti’s palace and palazzo della Duchessa.

The structural interventions of the Sforzas contributed to making the fortress bulkier and more menacing.

The tower, possibly designed by the Filarete, originally decorated with capitals in carved granite and bearing a frieze in the old style with terracotta ox skulls, was the only element that mitigated the austerity of the city-side façade. While under the rule of Bianca Maria Visconti and Francesco Sforza little took place in terms of decorative works, it was during the government of Galeazzo Maria (especially starting from 1467) that the edifices of the ducal court and the internal apartments for the duke and his following were terminated. Though the duke did not reside in Milan very often, preferring his hunting lodges or the magnificent castle at Pavia, the chambers on the ground floor were soon decorated with heraldic motifs.

The ducal apartments were located near the Elefante portico: the duke’s on the left and the duchesses’ immediately behind the portico. The two perpendicular blocks were hinged by the Tower or Asse Hall, currently corresponding to Hall 8 of the Ancient Art Museum. Tower Hall was decorated by an intricate inlaid and gilded boiserie that provided direct access to the ducal gardens beyond the moat.

The right wing of the Elefante portico hosted the San Donato chapel (Hall 3), an apartment (later utilised by the Moro, Hall 4) and the sala nova («new hall») or Balla Hall (Halls 1 and 2). The latter should not be confused with the present day Balla hall located in the Rocchetta courtyard.

The duke’s apartment comprised the large or green hall on the ground floor (Hall 14), decorated with fazoli or «knotted kerchiefs», which served

MILAN

for feasts and official celebrations; the chapel (Hall 12); the Council Room, on the right, decorated in black and white segments (Hall 15); the antechamber or red room (Hall 13) with gilded columbines against a red background; and the duke’s sleeping chamber (Hall 11), this too decorated with a boiserie and featuring a blueand gold-coloured vaults.

The purpose of these halls remained unchanged under Ludovico il Moro.

The latter, in response to his growing political prestige, moved his living quarters from the rooms along the main courtyard on the right of the entrance (area now corresponding to the Public Library of Art) to the «sala nova» and the San Donato chapel and several rooms at the Rocchetta, going on to occupy the ducal apartments after his investiture in 1495. At the same time, the Elefante portico was closed-off to create a new «saloto,» or lounge, that enlarged the apartment of the

duchess, joining it with the chambers of the Moro and the duke. Work was carried out in different parts of the castle at this time, including the completion of the Rocchetta courtyard and the construction of new tenements for the veterans quartered at the large courtyard. Also of the same period were the construction of a small quarter above the bridge that connected the garden to the tower of the ducal apartments and the nonpermanent series of refurbishments and decoration initiatives. Francesco II Sforza’s efforts focused on the castle with the restructuring in 1534 of the duchess’ chambers that had been constructed by his father. Permanent interventions, however, were limited to the painting of a number of vaults – some of which were unfortunately torn and badly conserved – and several frescoed friezes. Precious arrases were made on that occasion for the court hall depicting episodes from Aeneas’s life or exotic animals.

The treasure «a spectacle triumphant, very worthy and rich» The only surviving fresco of the 1490s that Ludovico il Moro commissioned as part of the decorations for the Rocchetta is Bramantino’s superb Argo. In an architecture conceived to achieve a trompe l’œil effect, the imposing muscular figure of the shepherd-guardian with hundred eyes is thrust with all of its powerful girth into the room, amidst fakebronze medallions representing the scenes of the myth (Mercury who entices Argo into sleep) and Juno’s blithe peacocks. Under the painting there lay in an apparently disorderly but scintillating heap, the treasure of the Sforza. Each worth 10,00015,000 ducats, were twelve large gold medals, placed on oriental rugs, bearing the effigies of the dukes of Milan, and piles of gold coins worth a total ranging from 650,000 to 800,000 ducats. On tables were laid long necklaces, collars, chains, the

jewels of the duchesses. Enamel and painted chests and boxes contained pearls of disproportionate size, cameos, diamonds and precious stones. Some of the chandeliers in silver were the size of a man.

The treasure included the sixty-two large vases in enamel, gold and silver made in the old style like those belonging to the duke Ercole d’Este, plus other vases in lapis lazuli, porcelain and cornelian.

Hanging on the walls, above the «shelving all loaded by some beautiful refinery», there were sixty-six saints in full silver, with four crosses covered in precious stones and one in solid gold with pearls. And successively a large altarpiece painted and gilded with a Coronation of the Virgin surrounded by angels and saints, and «silver coins aplenty, heaped in a mound so high that a mountain goats could not climb.»

37

CASTLE TRAIL 2

Travelling on the surface of the water The court on the navigli CUSAGO ABBIATEGRASSO BEREGUARDO PAVIA BINASCO

Boat with wheel paddle, in De machinis by Mariano di Jacopo, aka Taccola, 1449.

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France

The Vigevano-based writer Pier Candido Decembrio tells us in Vita Philippi Mariae Vicecomitis tertii Ligurum ducis that when duke Filippo Maria Visconti (1412-1447) had become too fat to ride a horse «he made a web of navigli to arrive in Milan so that he could reach nearly all the localities he frequented by means of a barge structured in such a way as to reproduce the aspect of the ducal audience hall and to which was attributed the same hierarchy of servitude. In this way he was taken first to Cusago, then to Abbiategrasso, and finally to Bereguardo and Pavia».

This (none too flattering) image of obese Filippo Maria being pulled on the water’s surface on his sumptuous boat «by horses marching on the banks» provides us with the plan of this itinerary. Leaving the castle in Milan, the course takes us to Cusago, Abbiategrasso, Bereguardo, Pavia and necessarily back to Milan, on the waters of the Pavia naviglio, or canal, before heading to Binasco. The water trail takes the shape of a triangle between Milan, Abbiategrasso and Pavia, an area once crossed by canals but now by roads, namely Provinciale 494, Statale 526 and Provinciale 35. This was where the Viscontis owned most of their agricultural lands, the memory of which can still be deduced by some of today’s place names: Gudo Visconti, Motta Visconti and Viscontina. These properties were all featured a head house, or a fortified structure, guarding the local mill, and, of course, the inn. While many of the ducal farms in the region – Binasco, Vigano, Trezzano – were donated by duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1378-1402, duke from 1395) to the Charterhouse of Pavia, other were passed down to cadet branches of Visconti House: Moncucco came under the ownership of Visconti di Albizzate (successively of Fontaneto and Cassano Magnago); Motta, Gaggiano and San Vito of Visconti di Somma, whose title of marquess derived from the property they owned at San Vito.

It was in this area that the dukes of Milan perfected the system of water canals, work for which had started centuries earlier. It is likely, the naviglio grande, or “big canal”, originated from the rearrangement of a 12th century ditch, successively called the Ticinello, an offshoot of the Ticino.

The ditch was dug up between Abbiategrasso and Landriano passing through Binasco as a defensive barrier against Pavia, which had become an ally of Emperor Federico Barbarossa. Utilised also as an irrigation canal, the artificial watercourse was gradually widened and turned into a navigable waterway heading in the direction of Gaggiano-Trezzano to strengthen Milanese trading in the Verbano basin and across the alpine passes. The canal had probably reached the suburbs of Milan as early as 1209, while a new branch soon linked Abbiategrasso with Turbigo, filling 39

TRAVELLING ON THE SURFACE OF THE WATER

1438, the year of the great construction work Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan is home to a small handwritten codex compiled by Dolfino Giorgi, a treasurer with the duke. It contains entries concerning the moneys spent on work carried out in the duke’s various residences and fortifications in 1438.

A precious source of information, the codex records

restorations and enlargements carried out not only in castles at Milan, Pavia, Cusago, Abbiategrasso, Bereguardo, San Colombano, Binasco, Monza, Melegnano, Vigevano, Valenza, Castelleone, but also in parks and reserves, and mentions the construction of bridges and the excavation of canals.

the canal with running waters. As the construction work for the Duomo of Milan passed under the supervision of Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1387 (work on the cathedral had started the previous year), it became necessary to come up with a more viable transport route for the marble quarried in the Verbano. The canal’s city branch was finalised and made navigable around this time, while the engineers working at the Duomo were called to solve the problems arising from land height by designing a system of basins and locks. The network of canals was in the meanwhile further widened during the 15th century, most likely by Filippo Maria Visconti himself. With the opening of the Bereguardo canal linking Abbiategrasso to Ticino, the waterway covered the significant land height of 24 metres thanks to twelve locks along a distance of 19 kilometres. Some years later, thanks to duke Francesco Sforza (1450-1466), the old irrigation canal connecting Pavia to Binasco created by duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti, was widened and made navigable. But it was only in 1819 that the Milano-Pavia route was completed by way of an alternative to the tortuous naviglio grande-naviglio Bereguardo connection, finally linking Milan to the Ticino. Although Filippo Maria’s project of creating a canal from the Adda was resurrected by Francesco Sforza in 1457, it was terminated only by Ludovico il Moro in 1496. The outcome was the Navigium Novum or the Martesana Canal that departed from the Adda, at Trezzo Castle, and reached the Milanese church of San Marco The Visconti and Sforza dukes of Milan were instinctively aware of the strategic nature of these waterways. They realised canals served personal and state purposes better than the incommodious land routes. Sumptuous state galleys, the bucentaurs, carried the dukes along the canals directly to their residences disseminated across the dukedom. In Milan, for example, the dukes constructed two docks at the castle, one towards the piazza and the other towards the park, thereby allowing them and court members to discreetly access boats. Once they had embarked, the barges would travel along the old city ditch, past the many soste, or commercial warehouses with access to the waterway, along the now filled 40

Leonardo da Vinci, The San Cristoforo canal, in Codice Atlantico, 1509. Milan, Biblioteca Pinacoteca Accademia Ambrosiana

CASTLE TRAIL 2

41

TRAVELLING ON THE SURFACE OF THE WATER

Agnese del Maino: the one and only Agnese del Maino, daughter of Ambrogio, was a Milanese noblewoman. She belonged to a Ghibelline family that owned extensive landed property in the area north of Milan, as well as in Pavia and Novara – a very wealthy family that fell in disgrace following the assassination of duke Giovanni Maria Visconti (1412). Agnese was probably the damsel of duchess Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda (1372-1418). The influential widow of the condottiero Facino Cane, Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda became the first wife of Filippo Maria Visconti, some twenty years junior to her, and helped him consolidate his grip on power. But then she was charged with adultery and beheaded probably at Binasco Castle in 1418. It was at this time that the duke started his amorous liaison with Agnese del Maino, although some sources claim that she was initially physically forced into the relationship with the duke. From Agnese the duke had his only two daughters: Bianca Maria, who became duchess of Milan, and Lucia, who died prematurely. The noblewoman lived practically as a recluse in the castles of Abbiategrasso and Cusago, where she grew up her daughters removed from court life. In 1427, the duke married Maria di Savoia (14111469), who was in turn relegated to a house the duke has especially constructed at Castle Square in Milan. The relationship of the duke with his wives and only mistress highlight Filippo Maria’s complex rapport with the opposite sex. In 1425, for example, Agnese was barred from entering the ducal apartments at Cusago and evicted from the castle at Abbiategrasso at the time of the duke’s arrival. It is difficult to understand if the orders were due to the duke’s paranoiac hypochondria, which had worsened in times of pestilence, or to a form of misogyny. When Filippo Maria died in 1447, Agnese was able to show her strong will and character: she offered advise to her son-in-law Francesco Sforza; she convinced the lord of the castle at Pavia to surrender the fortress and the city to the Sforza; she was the focal point of a wide-ranging and powerful

42

faction that played a significant role in opening the gates of Milan to the new duke. During the early years of the Sforza rule, Agnese appeared to have cut for herself the highly respectable role of duchess widower, which had been denied to Maria of Savoia, the legitimate wife of the Visconti. Her daughter, the new duchess speaks of that «magnificent lady my mother» in her private letters to her husband, the duke. As emerging from the correspondence with the son-inlaw, Agnese also built a more than amicable relationship with the duke. A story recounted by the no-longer young Agnese to the Sforza about a horse carriage accident she had is a case in point: «Your Lordship may have a good laugh when I tell you that, following a fall from the carriage, they all started wailing believing me dead; so I told them: what are you crying about! Why are you wailing so loudly! I should then say my Lord: too much love from my daughter and my family has harmed me more than it has been beneficial to me!» Agnese died on 13 December 1465 and was buried in the Milanese convent of the Poor Clares of Sant’Orsola, which she had founded, her tomb cared by her Franciscan friar friends of the Convent of Sant’Angelo.

As could have been expected, the story of Beatrice di Tenda and Agnese acted as a strong stimulus to 19th century sensibility. Italian romantic melodrama – otherwise so keen on tragedies occurring during medieval times or the renaissance in England or France – Beatrice di Tenda (1833) by Vincenzo Bellini (the thematic alias of Gaetano Donizetti’s 1830 opera Anna Bolena – was the only opera to use a plot drawn from the grim events of the age of the Viscontis. The scenes were set against the castle at Binasco. In the first draft, the handsome Sicilian musician with blue eyes, while liberally utilising pieces from previous works – as a consequence also of contrasts with the librettist – succeeded in developing choral scenes containing such forceful dynamism as to influence young Verdi. (The choirs of the dramatis personae “Courtesans” echo those of the Rigoletto).

CASTLE TRAIL 2

Master of Paolo and Daria (?), Bucentaur, detail, in De Paulo e Daria amanti by Gaspare Visconti, 1495.

Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

up canals under via Carducci, via De Amicis, via Conca del Naviglio, all the way to porta Ticinese, where they would then lazily float in the open country towards the San Cristoforo chapel and the naviglio grande. At Trezzano, the courtiers would flow into the small canal, the naviglietto, of Cusago, where under the shadow of the wood they would arrive at the dukes’ hunting lodge.

Along the naviglio grande between Milan and Abbiategrasso, almost as if imitating the network of ducal residences and delizie, or pretty dwellings, aristocrats and courtiers precociously started building their own country houses. Those nearer to the city disappeared in the aftermath of World War II, with the exception of the 15th century mansion – formerly, castle – of the Panigarolas, the court bursars, who had purchased it from the Pozzobonellis at Vermezzo. Now privately owned, the edifice features beautiful porticos, Roman-style medallions alternately bearing the images of dukes and emperors, and graffito ceilings with geometrical patterns that had become fashionable towards the end of the 15th century, namely Leonardo’s knots and the mathematician Luca Pacioli’s polyhedra, who had been a guest at Galeazzo Sanseverino’s manor.

Nearly towards the end of the principal branch of naviglio grande, at the gates of Abbiategrasso, the Castelletto – still named after the quarter of the commune – provided the first of a series of defences, besides acting as the a hub for the waterways. Here was located the residence of the Custodian of the Waters and where the Ticinello riverbed continued on its way to Binasco. Swerving to the south, a rapid flowing small canal led from Abbiategrasso to Bereguardo coasting the hunting grounds in the Ticino valley; then the boating cortege would reach its destination at Pavia, docking near the Bagno della Duchessa pool. Behind the magnificent castle, the garden and the vast park spread to the agricultural lands of the outstanding Charterhouse. Although that wonderful garden – full of animals including exotic species – has not survived, Mirabello is a required stopover; at the house that once belonged to the game warden and successively became the hunting lodge of Galeazzo Sanseverino. After the park, the next stage of the journey was Binasco, reached by boat on the Pavia canal.

43

CUSAGO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Cusago (Milan) TYPOLOGY: ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza, Casati Stampa di Soncino STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, private residence

Façade of Cusago Castle

44

Built by Bernabò Visconti (13541385), Cusago Castle was already being used by the ducal court as early as 1369. After the elimination of uncle and brother-in-law (Bernabò), Gian Galeazzo Visconti, too, often stayed at the castle, which was conveniently located close to Milan at the heart of a large game reserve enclosed by a wooden fencing. Between 1425 and 1440 Filippo Maria Vis-

conti seemed to have developed a weak spot for Cusago, where he often stayed. The duke also ordered restoration and enlargement works besides taking measures aimed at conserving the park.

His mistress Agnese del Maino, who habitually lived at a residence near Abbiategrasso, was also a frequent guest at the castle.

The naviglietto connecting the residence at Cusago with naviglio grande was dug near Gaggiano in 1438. The residential complex appears to have fallen in disuse during the last years of Filippo Maria’s rule. The full import of its abandonment emerged from a report written in 1447 as the duke lay dying. During the Ambrosiana Republic (1447-1450), part of the buildings at Cusago was demolished and some 10,000 perches of property sold to several aristocratic families in Milan. Though

CUSAGO

many provisions targeting the conservation of the park were taken in those years, including hunting and woodcutting restrictions, it is not clear whether the early Sforza dukes had a penchant for Cusago. A lukewarm approach that was confirmed by the deed that transferred the property to the marquis of Monferrato as a surety for the payment of the dowry for Elisabetta Sforza, the duke’s sister. Though it would appear that duke Galeazzo Maria (1466-1476) did rekindle interest for this game reserve, it would be Ludovico il Moro (1480-1499) who reconstructed and embellished the venue. In 1486, the artist Giovanni Pietro da Corte received the commission to paint several panels with friezes and floral pattern in the old style for the main hall of the castle, a clear sign that the complex had undergone extensive reconstruction in the second-half of the 1490s and that the finishing touches were being carried out. Cusago became a sort of delightful buen retiro, a place of courtly leisure, hosting, among others, Emperor Maximilian of Hapsburg, before it was donated to Beatrice d’Este, Ludovico Sforza’s wife in 1494. Following the upheavals of the early part of the 16th century, the castle was definitely donated to Massimiliano Stampa in 1525, remaining in the Casati Stampa di Soncino family for many centuries.

At present, Cusago looks more like a building than a castle. It is shaped like a rectangular parallelepiped with a large central courtyard. The longer sides measure 96 metres while, on the shorter eastern side is located the main entrance, which opens into the large piazza and is placed under the high tower, raised and altered

at a period successive to its construction during the Renaissance.

The northeastern corner of the construction featured a loggetta (now walled-in) that was an asymmetrical feature of the front view.

The façade was measured by openings placed at regular intervals, each crowned by shallow pointed arches on the ground floor and pointed arches on the upper floor. The large internal courtyard opened on the short side with a deep-set portico. The elegant capitals of the columns and the hanging ones of the portico are the only surviving decorative elements of the complex.

Under the Viscontis, the castle must have appeared as a towered farmhouse endowed with several courtyards, very different from the «palazzo molto belo» described in 1491 by Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Somma Lombardo and count of Busto Arsizio, to marchioness Isabella d’Este. Other than the letter to Isabella – a letter that tells of a typical day at Cusago among singing and dancing in the garden, hunting sorties in the game reserve, court games and pike and prawn fishing at the fishtanks and water-

Diploma of Ludovico il Moro, 28 January 1494. London, The British Library. The duke donates his consort Beatrice d’Este some possessions, including Cusago

45

A letter written by the Lord of Somma about courtly leisure The circle of Cristoforo De’ Predis, Hunting scene, detail, in De sphaera, 1470 ca. Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria

«This morning, being a Friday, the Duchess with all her ladies and myself joined company and went riding at the XV hour making our way for Cuxago. And before providing your Lordship with an account of all the day’s events, allow me to recount that I was in the carriage with the Duchess and Dioda [the court jester], and here we sang more than XXV songs, well tuned to three voices – Dioda tenor, myself either bass or soprano, and the Duchess soprano – making such commotion that I believe I have earned the fame of being madder than Dioda himself. [...]

Henceforth we commenced playing ball, which was very tiring, and after having played a while we went to visit the palazzo, which is very beautiful; there, is, among other things, a marble inlaid door beautiful as that of the Charterhouse. [...]

Nearby the palazzo we went a-fishing lampreys and prawns and caught them to our liking [...]. Then we fished pikes catching many huge ones [...] and here I let fly by the river those falcons you saw flying at

46

Pavia [...] and then we went hunting for deer, XXII we let loose and at the end two red deer and two roe deer we killed, then we reached Milan at one o’clock in the night where we presented the venison to his lordship the duke of Bari, who was as appreciative as can be and as delighted as if he had himself taken part, and I do believe that my Duchess has profited more than I have, for I believe his lordship the duke will donate her Cuxago, which is a place full of leisure as it is useful, but as for myself, I ruined my boots and, as I mentioned, became mad, and this is what you get when you are at the service of women. [...] My Lady, my Marchioness, I cannot forget the evening we passed together in her sweet company, then as now I go to the room of Madam hoping to find her brushing her hair alongside Teodora and Beatrice in shirt sleeves and Violante and Maria also unattired, and when I do not find her, I feel ill at ease».

Milan, 1491 February 11, Galeazzo Visconti to the marchioness of Mantova Isabella d’Este

Giovanni Pietro da Corte in 1486.

The castle was located in a vast green area. It is likely that in the north, under the external loggetta, there were a fishtank and a lodge, called the Palazzetta, which provided access to the farm. A low pale, or steccatello, protected the park closest to the palazzo, while a larger fence closed-off the entire game reserve. The very few houses that existed in the area – the parish church would be established only in 1602 – were arranged, then as now, around Castle Square according to an ideal miniature urban layout model.

CUSAGO

ways – the castle is also described in a Latin carme composed by Busto Arsizio born Giovanni Alberto Bossi, a relative of Galeazzo Visconti’s as well a playfellow of duchess Beatrice d’Este in the outing to Cusago. After having praised the Moro for the construction of the edifice, Bossi focuses on the venerable and beautiful marble gate, which was removed by Massimiliano Stampa and is now lost.

The entrance archway to the palazzo, defined by Galeazzo Visconti as «an inlaid marble gate as beautiful as the one at the Charterhouse [of Pavia],» must have appeared as an iconographic patchwork of mythical, historical and biblical characters, including not only Titus and Vespasian, Cicero and Virgil, David with Goliath’s head and Judith with Holofernes’ but also the theological and cardinal Virtues besides Romulus and Remus and the shewolf – all rigorously in marble. The outcome must have been a less than sober portal, akin to that which once adorned the Marchesino and Cristoforo Stanga palace at Cremona, now kept at the Louvre.

Above the gate, up on the tower, was a clock that sounded the hours in the surrounding countryside.

The effigies of the dukes were aligned under the portico («insubrium stat imago ducum») to highlight the continuity between the Viscontis and the Sforzas, producing an effect similar to the frieze painted in the loggia at Invorio Castle. The court hall was decorated with a pattern of lozenges still visible today, while the arch panache contained terracotta or marble medallions depicting either dukes or emperors, signalling a thematic continuity with the figures of both the portico and the portal.

The old style decoration was repeated in the panels designed by

One of the capitals of the castle’s internal portico, Cusago

47

ABBIATEGRASSO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Abbiategrasso (Milan) TYPOLOGY: ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza, Villavecchia, Cambiago, Saiz, Borgazzi, Nicorini STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Romeo Brambilla Public Library, of the Tourist Office, of the Pro Loco, of Fondazione per la Promozione dell’Abbiatense

Eastern façade of Abbiategrasso castle

48

The present-day Abbiategrasso Castle was built on the eastern edge of the town probably towards the end of the 13th century as a replacement of a previous fortification, the castro Margazario, located to the south of the settlement near the Benedictine

monastery of San Martino. It is likely the castle was enlarged and restored under Azzone Visconti (1329-1339). Though Gian Galeazzo Visconti commissioned some refurbishments in 1381, extensive restoration work took place only in 1438 under duke Filippo Maria. Losing before long its function as a defensive bastion and located conveniently near Milan and a large game reserve, besides being easily accessible by water, the fortress became Filippo Maria Visconti’s favourite country residence.

Galeazzo II Visconti (1354-1378), in assigning the castle and the extensive lands owned by the Viscontis around the town as a privilege of his wife Bianca of Savoia, inaugurated the tradition – which would be taken up also by the Sforza – of conceding the dominion of Abbiategrasso to the

ABBIATEGRASSO

consorts of the lords and, successively, dukes of Milan. By assigning to their wives the extensive farming lands of Abbiategrasso, besides the feudal control of one of the wealthiest and liveliest towns in the dukedom, the princes were in a position to manage in an entirely private manner the revenues from those rich lands. A tangible sign of this feminine vocation of the castle – as opposite to Cusago’s – was the decision by Agnese del Maino, mistress of the duke Filippo Maria as well as mother of duchess Bianca Maria, to reside at Abbiategrasso.

When in 1450 Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria became the dukes of Milan, strong-willed Agnese continued living at Abbiate and, alongside her daughter’s mother-in-law Lucia Terzani, reared the children born out of the ducal couple in a serene domestic climate. The presence of the descendants of the new Sforza dynasty at the castle that was Filippo Maria Visconti’s favourite – the very same one where Bianca Maria herself had grown up – served to propagandise the Sforza dynasty’s Visconti roots.

Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s frequent stays at the castle and his commitment to the town should thus be seen under this light. This was the place chosen by the duke for the birth of his heir Gian Galeazzo Maria (20 June 1469), imitating what the first duke of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti had done with his first son Giovanni Maria (7 September 1388). In 1480, the castle became the stable residence of the duchess widower Bona di Savoia, who had been removed from Milan by her brother-in-law Ludovico il Moro and confined to Abbiate in compliance with the 1468 matrimonial contract according to which in case of widowhood her permanent residence

would be at Abbiate. Following the restructuring of Cusago, Gambolò and Vigevano, Abbiategrasso Castle progressively fell out of reckoning with the Sforza court. The castle soon regained its role as a military fortress becoming the theatre of bloody clashes between the French and the imperials that between 1524 and 1527 led to the destruction of part of the fortress, which was successively included in a system of military bastions set up by the Spanish. In 1658, three towers were destroyed while the fourth was halved; the southern wing was razed to the ground as the complex was transferred to private ownership and transformed to civic use.

Sold to the Commune in 1862, it

Lombardy workshop, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, detail of the trunk of the three dukes, 1480-1494. Milan, Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Applicata

49

A view of the eastern façade of the castle, Abbiategrasso

was the city administration that successively took the decision to demolish the castle’s annexes and bastions, to cover the moat with a view to creating the station square and to carry out some restorations.

What remains of the original structure is but a segment of the eastern wing, with related tower and the courtyard’s structural frame. From decorative point of view, the brick mullioned windows that are visible from via Cavallotti show great ele-

gance. Some traces of the original decorations can also be seen in the courtyard, while on the top floor where the prisons were located, originally under the roof, there are graffiti left by the unwilling guests.

With its four-sided form and angular towers, the castle must have been quite a sight to behold in the surrounding countryside, also because the tower rose steeply above the main structure. Developing around an almost square-shaped central courtyard at one time featuring imposing five-spanned porticos on each side with ogive arches place on massive pillars, the castle was entirely decorated, as can still be observed in the courtyard, in lively colours.

The faux brick façades bore the motto A BON DROIT, coined by the poet Petrarca, while under the porticos, like at Pandino, there were geometrical patterns arranged in such a way as to cover the walls like a fabric. Barring the cellars, in nearly all the rooms, as in Pandino and Vigevano, the ceilings feature wooden beams and not vaults.

The internal arrangement of the apartments is not clear. It would appear that the representative rooms were located on the eastern wing, the one facing Milan and having an independent access directly from the countryside and the waterways. The coat-of-arms with snake is still visible today. This structure originally featured a hanging garden with belvedere created on the external stands of the fortifications. The large room on the ground floor with fireplace (still visible today), and which must have acted as one of the most important representative halls, featured lozenge pattern decorations in white and dark red with mottos, probably made by the painters Giovanni da Monza and Giovanni Pessina. On special occasions, the hall was equipped with

ABBIATEGRASSO

sumptuous temporary settings. The apartments of the duchesses may have been located in the northeastern corner of the complex as testified by a graffito bearing the date of birth of duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza in a room on the first floor, which probably belonged to Bona di Savoia. The duke’s apartments were probably in the no-longer extant southern wing, in the direction of the so-called “borghetto,” where Filippo Maria Visconti had commissioned the painter Balzaro Piatti to decorate a number of rooms. The ducal chapel of Santa Maria in castro was located, as in Pavia, immediately on the right of the entrance of the structure overhanging the façade attached to the now lost south-western tower. 17th century sources speak of it as being very finely decorated.

The castle only partially blended with the town. Growing in a rather unusual manner, the latter presented a bipolar structure hinging on one side around the parish church of San Pietro (unusually located in a suburb outside he walls) and on the other around the San Martino Benedictine nunnery. The fortified centre, with the original castle, developed around the monastery and the church of Santa Maria vecchia.

Progressively widening towards the north and towards the church of San Pietro around the 13th century, the urban settlement was endowed with a new city wall. It was an extremely regular – nearly square shaped – wall with the castle being placed halfway along the eastern wall to form an axis on the Milan-Vigevano route. The years between 1365 and 1372 saw the construction in the newer part of town of Santa Maria nuova, the imposing new church commissioned by local potentates and subsidised by the Viscontis. The dukes’ presence in

town led to the creation of a third directive of urban development with the construction of the Franciscan church of Santa Maria Annunziata northwest of centre. This religious complex was built after 1469, following an ex voto duke Galeazzo Maria had made a few years earlier, and consecrated in 1472. The Franciscan settlement in a ducal possession was the outcome of long-standing relations forged by the defunct grandmother Agnese del Maino and was expected to have an echo at Galliate. On the road to Milan, the town’s fortifications came into contact with the Castelletto, a castle owned by the Torrianis and successively by the Viscontis that strategi-

Internal courtyard of the castle, Abbiategrasso Decoration from the internal courtyard of the castle, Abbiategrasso

51

BEREGUARDO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Bereguardo (Pavia) TYPOLOGY: ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Attendolo Bolognini, Maruzzi da Tolentino STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Town Hall and the Public Library

Entrance of the Bereguardo castle

52

The earliest records to mention the castle of Bereguardo date back to 1351, when the building hosted, on a temporary basis, the court of Galeazzo II Visconti. An original fortification as well as the urban settlement were probably purchased by the Viscontis from the Episcopal chap-

ter of Pavia. Although it was listed among the fortifications of the dukedom, the castle, as can be inferred from its architectural structure, appears to have been primarily conceived for residential rather military purposes. The castle was restored and enlarged between 1392 and 1438. In 1448, Francesco Sforza donated the castle and the possession of Bereguardo to the lord of the manor of Pavia Matteo Marcagatti Attendolo Bolognini, who at the same time handed Pavia Castle to the duke’s favourite Agnese del Maino, mother-in-law of the Sforza.

But upon ascending the ducal throne in 1450, the Sforza handed over the property and feud to his son-in-law Giovanni Maruzzi da Tolentino, from the Marche region. This donation by the first of the Sforza dukes epitomises the scenario that had emerged with the ascension to power of the dynasty. Francesco Sforza had to walk the fine line of diplomatic mediation by placing his followers – like Tolentino – within the Milan power system without disaffecting the members of the local aristocratic establishment. To please the one party and to introduce the other, Francesco and Bianca Maria had to donate and grant numerous ducal properties with relating strongholds. The Tolentinos continued to be the masters of Bereguardo until the first quarter of the 18th century. At the same time the castle was partitioned among the various branches of the family while the sumptuous baroque villa was constructed at the other end of the piazza. In 1897, the complex was donated by Giulio Pisa to the city.

The manor is a bulky structure placed atop of a low relief over the Ticino valley. As with the castle at Pavia, the castle’s present-day U-shape is the outcome of the demolition of the wing that closed-off the courtyard on the

other on the upper); a large hall located in the wing opposite the church; and another in the one opening out on the piazza; a richly decorated «regal room,» containing two gilded altarpieces (one painted in oil representing the Virgin and the other on canvas depicting Saint Jerome) possibly corresponding to the one presently featuring a fine mullioned window with two lights; the chapel dedicated to San Nicola da Tolentino (located in the no-longer existing wing overlooking the garden; a tower chamber; two chanceries; the apartments for the bailiff and the magistrate; plus stables, kitchens, larders, cellars. The castle’s decoration include a considerable number of arrases depicting «figures» or «leaves and animals.»

Some rooms were painted in the 17th century, possibly even the «hall of the falcons and hawks,» which was presumably decorated with hunting scenes. A 19th century visitor remembers a writing in German, most likely the Sforza’s motto of MIT ZAIT, which was accompanied by the Everlasting, chosen by Francesco Sforza to recall the value of patience in diplomatic action.

BEREGUARDO

west. The demolition entailed the elimination of the porticos, the chapel and a tower, which had probably already occurred in the 17th century.

Under the Ghibelline merlons (now partly walled in) on the brick walling, it is still possible to see the traces of the original openings. Nevertheless, the most beautiful wall is the one on top of the northern wing. Very elegant with the small marble column, it dates back to the restoration works carried out under Filippo Maria, as can be inferred from the abbreviation FM. The courtyard as well as the interior have all but lost their refined 15th century look.

A number of locations within the castle are mentioned in two inventories dating back to 1516 and 1517. The list of goods kept at Bereguardo by the two brothers Ludovico and Giovanni Tolentino are only in part complementary and help to give an idea of how sumptuous the decoration was.

The edifices, arranged around a large courtroom and several smaller ones for service purposes, featured a portico with marble columns and an «open hall;» two apartments for the ladies (one on the lower floor and the

Internal courtyard of the castle, Bereguardo

53

THE VISCONTI CASTLE OF PAVIA

MUNICIPALITY: Pavia TYPOLOGY: ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, public museum and exhibition hall

Aerial view of the Visconti Castle at Pavia

54

Pavia Castle of is the most eloquent testimony of the Sforza’s regal dreams. Constructed in five years, starting 1360 astride the city’s third wall (the one dating back to the 12th century), possibly in place of an old fortress built by Matteo Visconti,

Pavia Castle has conserved part of its monumental aspect. Flanked by a military citadel that developed all the way to the monastic complex of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, the construction was conceived as a manor house following the laborious and definite conquest of Pavia, the ancient capital of the Longobards. It immediately became the home of the court of Galeazzo II Visconti.

The huge quadrilateral castle with towers was 150-metres-long on each side and probably one of the most imposing civil constructions in the whole of Europe. It gave a clear sign of the prestige of the Visconti family whose members were now marry-

PAVIA

ing with the kings of France and England. A poignant comparison may be made with the Paris castle of the Louvre – restored in 1360 by Charles V of France who was still staying at the old fortress of Philippe II Augustus – spread across a quadrilateral that was barely onequarter of Pavia Castle. The regular and modular structure continues to generate surprise for its uniformity and grandeur. Each wing was (and partly still is) divided in eleven vaulted spans. This span acted as the basic model for the rooms of the castle, which featured in turn one, two, three spans, up to a maximum of five at the Salone delle Cacce.

To mark the end of the architectural feat, Galeazzo II in 1365 entrusted Giovanni Dondi with the task of creating and astronomical clock to be housed in one of the towers. In that same year, Francesco Petrarca in a letter to his fellow writer Giovanni Boccaccio praised the «structurae mirabilis» of the castle, while in the following year Galeazzo asked Guido Gonzaga, the Constable of Mantova, to send over painters to decorate the castle’s interiors. In the meanwhile, artists from Bologna were called. But a further request for artists from Mantova was reiterated in 1380 when Gian Galeazzo Visconti was keen to have in his court painters skilled in depicting figures and animals. It was probably in those years that plans were made to close off part of the capacious portico for the construction of other rooms fit for courtly life.

Filippo Maria Visconti lived at Pavia on an irregular basis, privileging instead Milan and the castles of Abbiategrasso, Bereguardo and Cusago, but his many commissions at Pavia may be ascribed to the presence here as well as possibly in Mantova of Pisanello who was intent on depicting the jousts and the leisurely

activities of the Viscontis. In 1448, the castle was handed over by the lord of the manor Matteo Marcagatti da Bologna to Francesco Sforza thanks to the intercession of Agnese del Maino, mother-in-law of the condottiero and a favourite with the duke. But it would be under Galeazzo Maria Sforza that Pavia regained the prominence it had under the early Viscontis. Galeazzo turned Pavia into the court’s principal venue. And before long he was staying longer at Pavia than in Milan.

Besides, it was a key aspect of his policy aimed at highlighting his dynasty’s continuity with that of the Visconti’s. The projects for Pavia were sidelined with the death of the duke, and the castle often hosted the very young duke Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1476-1494), who had been removed from the castle in Milan, from where his uncle Ludovico il Moro ruled. With the French invasion of 1499, the castle lost is courtly function and was gradually turned into a military fortress and barracks. In 1525 during the Battle of Pavia the northern wing was devastated, destroying the palaces’ most beautiful decorative cycles and rooms. The spoliations continued

Giovanni Andrea Vavassore (attributed), Pavia besieged by the Catholic King of France (L’asedio di pavia dal christianisimo Re di frãca), 1525. Pavia, Musei Civici

55

Flemish make, The Battle of Pavia, 16th century. Naples, Polo Museale Napoletano, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte

56

during the sack of 1527 when two towers overlooking the park were brought down. Utilised for military purposes until 1921, it was restored in the following decades and is now home to the Pavia city museum.

The city façade has conserved in part its original aspect, with the two high towers framing the merlons of the parapet that are regularly cadenced by elegant mullioned two-light windows. Of the three original entrances, two remain: the city gate and the western gate, which was at one time touching the fortified citadel. Access to the castle is now through this latter gate, bringing visitors to the museum areas. The vast courtyard, open to the north where the lost wing once stood, is surrounded by a solemnlooking portico featuring pointed arches that are held up by octagonal pillars. On the upper floor, regularly-spaced series of mullioned windows with four lights and decorated with rosettes characterise the side overlooking the courtyard of the city wing, while the feature on the shorter sides are single- and twolight mullioned windows that replaced the original four-light mullioned windows, which were closed

in order to create new apartments.

Little remains inside of the original decorative exuberance. Significant fragment of courtly decorations have survived only in the Blue Room in the south-western tower and in Sala delle Damigelle and Sala delle Rose on the eastern wing. In particular, the damsels deftly painted on a faux tapestry background featuring stylised roses under gothic-like arches are the most significant frescoes to have survived. Further traces are conserved in the portico by the ancient chapel – most likely the fragment of a scene depicting the fall of Pavia in the hands of the Viscontis – and also in other rooms.

Entering the castle from the principal city gate, the ducal chapel was located immediately on the right.

Staircases, located more or less where they are now, led to the loggias on the upper floor. On the right was the large library, while on the right there were the chancery rooms, followed by a crescendo of decorated halls. Among these, visitors were astounded by the Leopard Room containing exotic animals that seemed to have come out of the notebook – now kept at Bergamo –

PAVIA

of Giovannino de’ Grassi, who was born in a Visconti milieu. Many of the rooms were painted with hunting and natural scenes. While lions, leopards and tigers vied with falcons, hounds, deer and boars, other rooms were decorated by tangles of violets and other species of flowering plants.

The central part of the northern wing was occupied by the Hunting Salon, or Salone delle Cacce (approximately 40 metres by 12 metres), entirely dec-

orated by hunting and angling scenes, images from tournaments and other courtly pleasures. There was also a famous portrait of Gian Galeazzo Visconti surrounded by a pack of hounds. At the centre of the hall there was an enormous balcony (approximately six metres in width and seven metres in height) that overlooked the park. According to the Pavia chronicler Stefano Breventano «it jutted out above the ditch by

The 1469 decoration campaign and the chapel of the relics Starry vault with the feats of Galeazzo Maria Sforza.

Pavia, Visconti Castle, sala azzurra

In 1469, the court painter Bonifacio Bembo was entrusted with the task of drawing up a list of the paintings conserved on the walls of Pavia Castle and to make an estimate of the costs required for a complete restoration and integration of the existing decoration. Conserved at the State Archive of Milan, that document is an invaluable source for an accurate reconstruction of the castle, its pictorial cycles and of Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s megalomaniacal project, besides providing an account of the duke’s desire to align himself within the Visconti’s image tradition. The fifth duke of Milan wanted to redecorate several rooms in the ducal apartments with scenes from court life (welcoming of ambassadors, council meetings, lunches and receptions) and from his wedding with Bona of Savoia. Out of these rooms, where figures alternate with a continuous sequence of

mottos and feats, only one has survived, the sala azzurra (the blue room), on the ground floor of southwestern tower. The achievements of the Sforza are here narrated in geometric frames under a starry blue sky.

In 1474, Galeazzo Maria Sforza endorsed a plan for the redevelopment of the ducal chapel.

Located in the first two spans to the right upon entering the city gate, the courtly place of worship was to become a sort of large-sized reliquary not unlike the imperial chapel at Karlsˇtejn, in the Czech Republic. Under a blue sky studded with gilded stars and under the lunettes decorated with scenes from Christ’s life, an enormous altarpiece covered, like a cupboard, the walls. A partition wall divided the room in two.

The altarpiece featured shelves and drawers where the many relics were kept. The compartments were to be shut by 200 panels with saints on a gilded background painted by a team of court artists placed under the guidance of the elderly Bonifacio Bembo and the emerging Vincenzo Foppa. The project was not finished and the relics, donated to the city of Pavia, were dispersed during the sack of 1525-1527.

57

Castle courtyard, Pavia.

The mullioned windows with four lights decorated with rosettes are visible

six arms’ length, and where comfortably in the evening at summer time his lordships, the table laid, sat down in the fresh air to dine at the pleasant sound of trumpets, horns, flutes and other instruments.» Access was gained to the ducal apartments from this hall, to the east the duke’s and to the west the duchess’.

The duke’s apartments at the time

of Galeazzo Maria Sforza was particularly complex and articulate and included the Council Room, «decorated in the colour of aged gold» with the planets painted on the vault and the image of the duke seated alongside his councillors depicted on the walls; a second chapel; an antechamber, with frescoes depicting the images of the dukes’ closest chamberlains; the bedroom and the reception room, with walls painted in red and the emblem of the raza, the sun in splendour; a second antechamber, with the portraits of the ducal family and the highest ranking aristocrats in the dukedom; a dining room, with frescoes depicting the aristocracy in Pavia serving the duke at table. A sequence so rigorous of the function of each room – less so in Milan – as reflected in the decoration showed that etiquette and protocol at Pavia were indeed

A place for the conservation of culture and the family heritage The room on the ground floor of the castle’s southwestern tower was home to the Visconti’s important archive and library. The library at Pavia Castle had a catalogue of some 1,000 volumes, precisely 951 books in the 1489-1490 period, which is approximately the number conserved at tour de la Librairie in the Louvre. Greek and latin texts, in Hebrew or in French, works in medicine and law, bibles and hagiographies, original copies of the works of Francesco Petrarca, who had stayed at the castle in Pavia, mixed with the latest in courtly literature and the illuminated histories dedicated to the ViscontiSforza family lineage. Some of the most beautiful volumes were taken to Blois Castle in 1499 by Louis XII and can now be admired at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

The Visconti archive kept at Pavia represented the historical memory of the ruling family. This was not a cur-

58

rent affairs archive, as those kept in the magistrates’ offices in Milan or at chancery house, this was that part of the family and ducal archive relating to the privy affairs of family members or to the relations, mostly through matrimonies, with the prominent families of Europe. In boxes and on shelves, Bernabò’s account books stood side by side with the syndication and dedication chapters relating to Visconti estates, imperial privileges alternated with dowry documents, especially the sensitive ones relating to the succession to the ducal throne involving Valentina Visconti, and testaments. Following the fall of the Sforzas this archive too was dismembered with some papers finding their way to Paris or to the Ambrosiana and Trivulziana libraries in Milan. The presence of the archive and library was proof that Pavia Castle acted indeed as the place where the historic and cultural heritage of the Visconti-Sforza dynasty was conserved.

PAVIA

very rigid, in many ways anticipating the procedural rigour of European courts in the 17th century. On The apartments of the duchess were decorated with official court scenes and images of entertainments and games. There were, of course, images from the wedding of Bona of Savoia with Galeazzo Maria Sforza, where the focus was given, above all else, to the cortege of the King of France escorting the bride.

An unusual room must have been where the treasure was kept on the ground floor of the lost northwestern tower. Also called the Mirror Room, it was described by Breventano as having the vault covered «by square glasses as large as a man’s palm, all of varying colours not unlike those window panes you see in churches, and each of these glass squares bore the image of a man or one kind of animal or the other, or a plant, or a flower, all made in gold, that when receiving the rays of the sun as it rose from the east they resplended so brightly as to bedazzle the sight of whomsoever was inside. The floor of this very beautiful room is in mosaic bearing poems and histories from the old days, and had all around benches for seating all inlaid with backs as high as man’s hand can reach.»

The castle had been forced into the Pavia’s urban fabric, forming in the northern side a new development pole. The Viscontis created a new thoroughfare – corso Strada Nuova – that by altering the city’s road network directly linked the castle to the fortified bridge on the Ticino. During the Sforza age, the San Matteo hospital was founded along the new road and is now home to the university. In the area between the castle and the old urban settlement, near Santa Maria in pertica – a splendid 7th century single isle church demolished in 1815 – the ancient Longob-

ard non-urban burial ground was reclaimed and transformed into an elegant quarter mostly inhabited by courtiers. The fortifications west of the castle brought within the ducal citadel the ancient church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, a highly symbolic and ancient sacred place, famed for being home of St. Augustine’s tomb. The court’s dependencies extended north to where viale Giacomo Matteotti is today. In this area, between the castle and the Augustinian monastery, the Sforzas constructed Salone della Balla, the court’s town entertainment spot, as well as a harmoniously proportioned building famous for its outstanding acoustics, that no longer exists. The park expanded beyond all proportions to the north, until the Charterhouse was constructed

Bernardino Lanzani (attributed), View of Pavia, 1522 ca. Pavia, San Teodoro

59

The park and Mirabello Castle

Putti, cornucopias and crockery, 1520-1521. Pavia, Mirabello castle, master floor

60

If the walls of the castle rooms offered the full range of exotic animals and strange medieval bestiaries, at the viridarium located north of the quadrilateral among gardens and woods, unusual animals as well as local venison roamed. Spread across a total area of 22 square kilometres, the Pavia park was divided into separate areas by walls. Close to the castle’s northern moat, and thus within the full visual range of bystanders at the large balcony of the Salone delle Cacce, there where the ducal garden and the parchetto, or small park. Here were, most probably, the huge fishtank-cum-canal, which was possibly connected with the naviglio, and the Padiglione dei Bagni or Bagno della Duchessa, a square pool some 20 metres per side with four white marble stairs, covered by a pavilion in painted larch, the venue of the court’s summer frolicking. Enclosed by a 15-kilometre-long wall, the old park developed around the valley created by the Vernavola torrent, corresponding to the present-day transportation axis of via Torretta-via Vigentina.

In the middle of this area was Mirabello Castle, home of the Park Warden, the functionary in charge of administering the ducal possession. A lodge where the dukes and their retinues could stopover during their hunting sprees, in the last decade of the 15th century it became the castle of Galeazzo Sanseverino. It is currently a farmhouse that is partly still visible in the locality having the same name (strada Bompiumazzo 250). What remains of the original edifice stands out conspicuously in the surrounding campagna with its masonry in red brick, its large Gothic windows and balcony sustained by large shelves in serizzo marble, a characteristic also recurrent in palazzo Sanseverino at Vigevano.

The first duke of Milan from 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti further enlarged the park by absorbing the lands acquired from the church and the local aristocracy. With the new park, the enclosure wall was extended by some six kilometres and came very near to porta d’Augusto, the gateway to the Charterhouse of Pavia, the regal foundation established by duke Gian Galeazzo in those same years. Made up of a combination of ducal and private property, game reserves and farmland, this expanse of green was theatre of the famous and devastating Battle of Pavia in 1525.

PAVIA

on its fringes in 1396 as a sanctuary for the dynasty and burial place for the dukes. In a century during which the Visconti and Sforza dynastic continuity was forged, Pavia developed according to a project and was transformed in a masterpiece of courtly town planning, where the fortified bridge, Strada Nuova, hospital, courtiers’ quarter, palace, fortress, park and ducal burial place were linked by an ideal axis of power. Besides the extensive damage caused by the Battle of Pavia, the urban development plans of the Napoleonic age, the post-unification reconstruction around present-day piazza Castello and viale XI Febbraio, the opening of the rail link north of the castle and the more recent property development initiatives in the park have all contributed

to change the castle’s aspect, separating it from the city, from the adjacent, no-longer existing, fortress and from the park.

Cristoforo Solari, Funeral monument for Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d’Este, 1497, detail. Certosa di Pavia, Charterhouse church

Controlling time: Dondi’s planetarium «Item horologium unum magnum cum theoricis septem planetarium cum spera una cum ymaginibus et cum cosmographia et capsa sua lignea picta esistens in medio camere ipsius librarie cum libro uno pro eius reformacione cum clavis octo habentes arma ducalia»: these words written in 1489 describe the bulky machine for the measurement of time and the movements of the planets commissioned in 1365 by Galeazzo II Visconti to the physician, scientist and artist Giovanni Dondi (1318-1388) from Padova. Symbolically placed at the centre of the big library – on the ground floor of the south-western tower – the imposing astrarium cost Dondi as many as 16 years study and work. The complex clock was endowed with seven hands each one of which described the movement of one of the planets that were known at that time. It kept time all the way to 1440 when the mechanism jammed. Restored

it worked again and was admired by Emperor Charles V in 1529. It is possible to reconstruct the clockwork’s aspect in Dondi’s Tractatus astrarii.

Clock and text caught the interest of Donato Bramante who in 1495 requested the lord of the manor «to get some drawings of the planets out of the clock kept in this library» and to possibly reproduce them for the «round sky» room at Vigevano Castle. Those wishing to get an idea of how the clockwork mechanism functioned and looked like can admire the 1963 reconstruction

by Luigi Pippa the Milanese clockmaker that is now kept at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan.

Luigi Pippa, Giovanni Dondi’s Astrarium, 1963.

Milan, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci

61

BINASCO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Binasco (Milan) TYPOLOGY: fortress, ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: reconstruction CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, Town Hall Currently used as Town Hall, the castle of Binasco is located in the town centre, close to the Santo Stefano church. Not too far away there is the Pavia canal and even closer, just south of the fortress, there is the Ticinello, which was the natural boundary between the ancient counties of Milan and Pavia.

Famous for having been the gaol of Beatrice di Tenda – wife of duke Filippo Maria Visconti whom he decapitated on charges of adultery in 1418 – the fortress dates back to the 14th century when the Viscontis showed particular attention to “their” land of View of Binasco castle

62

Binasco. Strategically located along the road connecting Milan to Pavia, by the 14th century it had become the private property of the overlords of Milan. Binasco was part of the extensive lands the Viscontis were accumulating at that time in a bid to consolidate though property their still not very firm hold on power.

Later sources show that immediately after the purchase work was carried out to encourage the shifting of the settlement south of the Ticinello – where the San Giovanni parish church once stood – to an area to the north of the river. It was probably in the years around 1315-1319 that Luchino Visconti «founded, edified and endowed» Santo Stefano, which became Binasco’s parish church. It was against this backdrop that the decision was made to build a castle, which was first mentioned in 1329, when Azzone Visconti and his uncle Giovanni used the fortress to imprison enemies.

Endowed with special fiscal and

BINASCO Il Ticinello di Binasco, 1566.

Binasco Castle is at the centre

juridical privileges, Binasco developed significantly over the coming decades in terms of both population and wealth. Binasco hosted a market and was the administrative centre of a Visconti possession spreading across an area equivalent to the current extension of the communal territory. The settlement was surrounded by an embankment, while a ricetto, a small fortified area protected goods, animals and, if required, people, in case of attack. As for the castle, it remained a ducal prerogative so much so, in fact, that when in 1396 duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti donated all the lands and buildings of Binasco to the Charterhouse of Pavia, only the fortress was left out from the donation.

Work aimed at strengthening its residential function was underway as early as the first-half of the 15th century. Records also testify that the complex became a destination for the Sforzas when they visited the county. It is most

likely that its aspect was not very different from drawings and descriptions made of it in the 16th century. Endowed with a wide moat, drawbridges and four corner towers, the castle was dominated by the profile of a huge central tower. There was an ample hall in the residential wing, while at ground level there were cellars and prisons. The latter were known to be particularly insalubrious, and a “sojourn� there was fatal within a few weeks.

Extensively transformed and restored during the 17th century, the complex was heavily damaged during the sacks of the Napoleonic age and a ruinous fire that broke out in 1869. The outcome of successive reconstructions, its current aspect does nevertheless give an idea of its ancient grandeur. There are still a few visible signs of the two original angular towers along the southern parapet, but nothing has remained of the central keep.

63

CASTLE TRAIL 3

Hunting with the duke Ducal residences in misty Lomellina GAMBOLÒ VIGEVANO CASSOLNOVO

Hunting scene, in Treaty on falconry for Francesco Sforza, 1459. Chantilly, Bibliothèque du Musée Condé

«Clad in black, entirely turbaned, on a horse with a dark mantle and hounds aplenty, riding swiftly.» That’s how duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza appeared in the misty ducal game reserve to a traveller on his way to Milan. Arriving there, the gentleman discovered, much to his dismay, that the duke had been assassinated in the Santo Stefano church on that very day, and that what had appeared before him was the spectre of the duke in hunting garb. It was 26 December 1476. The anecdote, halfway between a gothic novel and a ghost story, appears in a morality poem written around the time of the murder. The account is credible on at least one point, though. The highlighting of duke Galeazzo Maria’s passion for hunting – an art loved and shared not only by nearly all the dukes of the ViscontiSforza dynasty but also by a great majority of the kings and noblemen of Europe at that time.

Not just merely a courtly entertainment, the princely art of hunting by the end of the Middle Ages had come to encapsulate wide-reaching political implications. The definition as well as administration of the large game reserves served to consolidate control over the territory besides gathering around the ruling prince, engaged in leisurely activities, an aristocracy that was unruly and prone to break away from all centrally imposed fetters. The large hunting sprees, in addition, provided the opportunity for the lord and his retinue to be seen outside the court and manors and to act as the protectors of the populace, accessible, caring and in the frontline to defend peasants against the threat of wolves and bears. The upkeep of dogs and wild animals, besides being a significant source of revenue, turned out to be useful in creating new courtly functions and honorific titles to be liberally distributed among aristocrats seeking gratification. And finally horse riding kept princes, members of the aristocracy, courtiers and militia battle fit.

It is therefore not surprising that there were in the dukedom extensive areas kept as game reserves: the parks at Milan, Pavia and Cusago; the game reserves in the heaths north of Milan and those between the Lambro and the Po; the protected areas along the Ticino valley and those between the Lambro and the Adda in the Brianza region. If the Visconti dukes had elected as their favourite hunting grounds the estates at Cusago, Bereguardo and Pavia, the Sforzas, namely Galeazzo Maria (1466-1476) and Ludovico il Moro (1480-1499), singled out the Lomellina and surrounding areas, the dukedom’s wet and misty far west. In an ample expanse of marshes and mostly uncultivated lands close to the valley of the Ticino – an area scarcely populated with the exception of the large towns of Vigevano, Garlasco, Mortara, Trecate and Galliate – the dukes of Milan had constructed, in the second-half of the 15th century, an impressive system of residences, castles 65

HUNTING WITH THE DUKE

Not just ducal castles View of Zerbolò Castle

This route presents several other castles, in varying degrees of conservation besides those strictly connected to the dukes’ hunting activities. The former include, for example, several small fortresses near the Ticino, between Pavia and Vigevano. One of these, Cascina Caselle, is located in the municipality of Zerbolò. Owned by the Eustachi family, it had begun to be converted into a princely manor already at the end of the 15th century and contains a number of interesting frescoes, probably the debut work of Bergognone.

Then there are the castles of Zerbolò, owned by the Visconti di Cassano Magnago; of Parasacco and of Beccaria di Borgo San Siro, whose ownership was transferred to the San Matteo hospital in 1475. And, of course, there is Gropello Cairoli, the imposing fortification with an outstanding parapet and a surviving corner tower once owned by the Beccaria and transferred by way of marriage and ducal pressure to the Visconti di Cassano Magnago. Also deserving to be mentioned is Garlasco Castle; now reduced to a few tottering ruins following the sack of 1524, it was at one time of key strategic importance for the control of Pavia and the road to Monferrato. The castle was wrested once again from the Beccarias and given by duke Filippo Maria Visconti to his trusted aide Guarnerio Castiglioni di Casciago in 1436.

and farms, thus keeping in check the ambitions of aristocratic families such as the Beccarias and the Barbavaras who drew their power from a deeprooted presence in the area. It is suggested that an aspiration of Galeazzo Maria’s was to transform the entire area between Vigevano and Galliate into an immense game reserve, while Ludovico il Moro pursued a sort of agricultural fantasy. The Moro, in creating the Moro roggia, or irrigation canal, and the Vigevano naviglio, triggered widespread emulation among local landowners who all sought to master local water resources. While this widespread intervention led to nasty disputes between the princes and their subjects, it did plant the seed of the region’s future vocation for rice farming. Following the Moro’s ruinous fall from power, the farming and hunting reforms initiated in this area were handed over to his arch enemy Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who obtained Vigevano – raised to the status of march – and the castles of Gambolò, Villanova and Galliate. All these territories and strongholds were placed under the dominion of Milan’s governors even during Spanish rule after 1535, confirming the territory’s connection with the central power.

An ideal start for the tour of the ducal residences located in the areas of Pavia and Novara is the now lost Sala delle Cacce e degli Svaghi, the Hunting and Leisure Hall at Pavia Castle. Here the first duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1378-1402, duke from 1395), had an equestrian portrait of himself painted while on a hunting expedition surrounded by a pack of hounds. And it was just from this painting that decades later Galeazzo Maria Sforza sought inspiration, having it «counterfeited» – as revealed in contemporary sources – 66

CASTLE TRAIL 3

67

HUNTING WITH THE DUKE

for the other ducal residences for motivations strictly connected to his passion for hunting and for the need to legitimise himself by creating a direct link with his illustrious predecessor. Connected more to Ludovico il Moro than to his brother Galeazzo Maria, Gambolò Castle, however, is probably the best place to start the tour. Besides the stopover at the castle itself, deserving a visit is the small walled town with its mostly well-kept homes – many endowed with Gothic-style windows – and the remains of the old town gates. Gambolò once had two parish churches, Sant’Eusebio and San Gaudenzio, which unusually depended on two different dioceses, those of Pavia and Novara (successively, Vigevano). But it is the town’s third church, San Paolo in via Magenta, that is in itself worth the visit, for here is kept the Lamentation of Christ Dead, a splendid wooden sculpture by Giovanni Angelo Del Maino. Dating to the 1530s, the artist, in abandoning the gilded brilliance typical of the Sforza image tradition, opted for a poorer range of colours, accentuating the realism and the pathos of the natural-sized figures that make up the group.

Proceeding along the road to Vigevano, the Provinciale 206, before entering the town there are the ruins of the Sforzesca, the Moro’s imposing farm that was constructed on a quadrilateral with four dovecot corner towers. A renaissance tour of the city would include, besides the castles, the Duomo and the churches of San Francesco and San Pietro Martire, two little known monuments, both located in the southern part of the city. Close by the covered road, via Cairoli 11, there are the remains of the palazzo of the Collis 68

The killing of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, in Lamento del duca Galeazo [sic] Maria, duca di Milano, Florence 1568. Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana

CASTLE TRAIL 3

Aerial view of the Sforzesca, Vigevano

from Vigevano, a family of jurists connected to the Sforza court. The fine little square is decorated with graffito drawings of scenes from court life, including the reception of foreign emissaries, probably also as a token of the activity of the Collis as envoys of the Sforzas, and a visit of a Florentine orator (1472) who stayed by the Collis. Some 800 metres away, there stands at the intersection between via Madonna degli Angeli, via Pisani and via Belli, Santa Maria degli Angeli, a small church dedicated to the Virgin as an ex voto by duke Galeazzo Maria, who survived a potentially fatal riding accident on that spot in 1470. Designed by the Florentine architect Benedetto Ferrini, it was one of the most beautiful among the ducal country chapels.

Out of the original structure with cupoletta decorated in gold and blue, of the procession of the “ducal” saints and of the ducal couple and family, there survives the fresco depicting Adoration of Child with the Madonna and St. Joseph. In a very poor state of conservation, it is attributed to Zanetto Bugatto, a painter contemporary sources define as being inspired by Andrea Mantegna as well as the experimentations of the Flemish.

Leaving Vigevano behind on the way to Cassolnovo and pulling out from Provinciale 206 past the Mora irrigation ditch, the road leads to the isolated ducal residence of Villanova, located deep in rice field country – inhabited by frogs, white and grey herons – that is spectacular in spring when the paddies are flooded. The route though could continue further and ideally terminate at Galliate Castle.

69

GAMBOLÒ CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Gambolò (Pavia) TYPOLOGY: princely castle, ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Beccaria, Sforza, Trivulzio, Litta, Litta Visconti Arese, Robecchi STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with some restructuring CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of several public offices, of the Gemma Biroli public library and of Archaeological Museum for the Lomellina

Gate at Gambolò Castle

70

Probably constructed where an old Roman military settlement was located, the ancient fortified town of Gambolò is trapezoid in shape (approximately 450 m by 350 m), with four gates and as many straight streets converging to piazza Cavour, the central piazza.

Records speak of a castle as existing in this central part of town since the 11th century. The Beccarias, a family that held sway in Pavia, owned it at least until the early part of the 14th century. Family members of this family kept seigneurial privileges over Gambolò as a private entitlement and not as a ducal concession up to the end of the

century. Antonio Beccaria and his brothers had to wait until 1412 before they were officially infiefed

by Filippo Maria Visconti (14121447), receiving at the same time the title of «Counts of Gambolò».

The investiture was confirmed in 1466 to Antonio Beccaria’s son Agostino, who maintained possession of the castle. The later often stayed there but died in 1475 without legitimate heirs.

At his death Agostino named as his sole heir the San Matteo hospital of Pavia. But soon after, in 1481, Ludovico il Moro who had just seized power succeeded in enforcing his private dominion over Gambolò, at the same time taking over the castle, where he resided with some assiduity in the 1480s and presumably commissioned restoration works. In that same period, Ludovico donated to his very young mistress Cecilia Gallerani property in nearby Parasacco and attempted to seize the lands and buildings the deceased Agostino Beccaria had bequeathed to the San Matteo hospital, forcing the latter to lease them in perpetuity. The Moro’s heavy handedness flared disputes involving local owners (among whom Scipione Barbavara, the influential ducal councillor), the citizens of Garlasco, Gambolò, Borgo San Siro and the representatives of the hospital. At the Moro’s fall, the castle and feud were handed over to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, along with Vigevano, Villanova and Galliate, while in 1513 those same lands and castles were given to Matteo Schiner, bishop of Sion.

Agostino Litta finally succeeded in obtaining the feud in 1573 after having paid an enormous sum for it. Though ownership continued to be contended with the local community until 1680, the new lords

GAMBOLÒ

initiated major works aimed at transforming the manor into a villa.

Located in the southwestern corner of the ancient town, Gambolò Castle is essentially four-sided in shape.

The old brick scarp walls, soaring over which are false ghibelline merlons, outline an ample perimeter of some 100-130 metres per side, some still surrounded by a dry moat. Four cylindrical towers stand in the corners, while the traces of at least three others are visible along the parapets. Access is gained from corso Vittorio Emanuele through a highly scenic baroque portal obtained from the ancient gate of the main tower. Placed in the northwestern corner of the mural circuit, palazzo Litta develops in line with the entrance, and consists of a central body around a rectangular internal courtyard partially endowed with a portico and two wings that protrude onto the façade, almost as if creating an antecourtyard. The long western wing is outstanding with its double column portico on the ground floor and closed gallery on the upper floor, also known as “Manica Lunga” or “Loggia delle Dame”, respectively the “Long Sleeve” or the “Ladies’ Loggia”, which starts on the southern side of the main building and ends in the round tower of the Belvedere. Now housing the Lomellino Museum for Archaeology, part of this structure used to provide a scenic backdrop to the beautiful baroque garden, which had been obtained in the southern portion of the walling and which has now been turned into a parking lot.

Gambolò Castle must have made quite an impression in the 15th century with its towers, including the one protecting the entrance that contemporary documents define as being «magnum». On the right, entering the vast enclosure, there

were, most probably, the chapel, the house of the podestà, with its gaols, baking furnace and well. On the left stood the magistrate’s house and the pressing facility. Remnants of the mastio, a.k.a. «the lord’s house», Agostino Beccaria’s mansion Ludovico il Moro transformed into the venue of his private court, can be seen on the northern façade of Litta Castle. The only decorative element remaining is the pointed terracotta window that can be seen on this segment of the construction.

The building developed around the salla magna, the great hall, which contained a large kitchen, several rooms and a small tower, known as the dovecot, which may well be the one still standing in the northwestern corner.

Portion of the wall with one of the corner towers, Gambolò

71

Aerial view of Vigevano. At the centre there is the castle with the square, on the right the covered road

Vigevano

VIGEVANO

Castle trail 3

Disregarding its mythical origins in Roman times, Vigevano was founded in the Longobard age. The earliest record of a local castle in this town dates back to the 10th century. At the end of the 12th century, Vigevano joined Milan, definitely tying its institutional fortunes to the latter. The town’s importance continued to grow under the Viscontis and the Sforzas, becoming under Ludovico il Moro, the last of the Sforza, a dynastic city. Under the French, the town was elevated to the status of march and ceded to Marshall Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who ruled there for nearly two decades (14991518). Upon the return of Francesco II Sforza (1521-1535), a new but shortlived ducal period reopened for Vigevano, which was raised to the rank of city and made into a bishopric. Coming under Spanish domination in 1535, the city was given to the Austrians following the Succession Wars (1714), before it was handed over to Piedmont under the terms of the Treaty of Aachen (1748).

More than just a single castle, Vigevano actually featured a stratified system of strongholds and fortifications of which there remains but the central block. Between the 14th and 15th centuries as many as three fortresses were constructed, namely the Castello Sforzesco, which still exists, Rocca Vecchia or Rocca di Belriguardo and Rocca Nuova or the palazzo Sanseverino.

Frieze with coat-of-arms, detail. Vigevano, the Visconti-Sforza castle keep

73

THE VISCONTI-SFORZA VIGEVANO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Vigevano (Pavia) TYPOLOGY: ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza, Trivulzio STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice that houses the Museo Internazionale della Calzatura (the Shoewear museum); the Pinacoteca and exhibition halls

Courtyard at the Vigevano castle. From left to right: the ducal stables, the tower, the halls that hosted the kitchen, the mastio and the “falconry loggia”

74

The original castle or fortified area, rising on a natural relief between the Terdoppio and the Ticino, was most likely protected by a fortified terreplein that surrounded the polygonal space corresponding to today’s piazza.

Between 1339 and 1341, Luchino Visconti (1339-1349), elected as podestà, redesigned the fortified structures of Vigevano, at the same time pressing ahead with the conversion of the old castle into a residential manor, a process that was ultimately finalised under the

Sforzas. It was in fact Galeazzo Maria Sforza who gave new impulse to the transformation of Vigevano Castle into a courtly residence. It was here that the duke moved his court in 1470 to receive his subjects’ oath of allegiance.

After which his stays at Vigevano became more frequent, leading to the enlargement of the castle.

After Galeazzo Maria’s death the castle appears to have been relegated by the regent Bona di Savoia to a military garrison.

After 1485, in coincidence with the outbreak of a deadly pestilence and growing political tension in Milan, Ludovico il Moro and his court stayed for ever longer periods in Vigevano, which became the place where the Moro and his nephew resided «for the greater part of the year.» It was from about this time that work intensified in an unprecedented manner in the Vigevano area with the completion of the canal; the digging of the Mora irrigation ditch; the con-

VIGEVANO

struction of the Sforzesca, the model farm; the fortification of the urban settlement; the embellishment of the town with the construction of the residences of his most trusted aides; the making of the large central piazza; the reconstruction of the town hall, the restyling of the castle; the establishment of large stable. It was also at this time that efforts were made to raise the parish to a bishopric.

Between 1490 and 1497, Vigevano was no longer just a favourite destination for hunting and other pleasurable activities, but was on the way to becoming a quasi-ducal city as it reached the zenith of its splendour. The castle hosted illustrious guests: the Marquis of Mantova and the duke of Ferrara stayed for lengthy periods of time, while in 1494 it was the turn of Charles VIII of France to visit the castle. It was the years when the castle and the town were hosts to the merry receptions relating to the wedding of Sanseverino

Adorno, to the hunting expeditions that turned into extravagant parades, to the stage representations during the lively carnival of 1493 when the duke and the courtiers wore masks and mingled with the crowd to enact the parody of a cavalier joust. The undisputed mistress of ceremonies was Beatrice d’Este, the youthful wife of the Moro who here, more than anywhere else, played her role as shadow duchess, readying herself for the official role she would acquire in 1495 when her husband became duke by imperial investiture and ousted the young heirs of his deceased nephew.

Not long after the fall of the Moro in the 1530s, the need arose, in view of the arrival of Charles V and the wedding between Francesco II Sforza and Christina of Denmark, to restructure the mastio by decorating several rooms with friezes. The castle, though, was in a state of great disrepair, and was de facto aban-

75

The bridge with ledge that links the falconry with the castle, Vigevano

76

doned for the following two centuries. Used as an army barracks starting from the 1700s and heavily restored and consolidated, it is currently the venue of exhibitions as well as home to the Pietro Bertolini international shoewear museum and the public art gallery.

These though occupy but a portion of the enormous complex, which has thus fallen in a state of neglect.

Presently, access to the castle is gained from piazza Ducale. The latter was established by the Moro in the 1490s. Conceived in the style

of a forum in the old style, it was part of an integrated project aimed at merging the castle into the town. Its original aspect was less uniform, with the building blocks and their porticos being interrupted by streets and by the castle ramp. Documental evidence indicates that the project underwent extensive rethinking due to the divergences involving the men in charge of the work, the court and the local citizens, thereby shattering the image according to which the project was entirely and single-handedly conceived by Bramante. Data arising from recent restorations also show the depth of bishop Juan Caramuel’s interventions, which uniformised the shape of the piazza in a way more significant than what had been previously thought. Even the lively façades are the outcome of an early 1900s restoration by Casimiro Ottone, a painter who did not apply a rigorous philological approach, preferring a serial kind of decoration that was qualitatively inferior to its 15th century original.

Towards the end of the 17th century, bishop Caramuel ordered work to be carried out on the porticos, which were thus completed and made uniform. Following the restructuring, the view of the castle was forever concealed, shifting the piazza’s vanishing point from the manor to the cathedral. Also removed were the ravelin and the high ramp leading to the fine tower, erroneously defined as Bramante’s. Most likely constructed in successive stages and completed in 1491, this tower is based on the model conceived by Filarete for the Milan castle and continues to be the entrance to the internal piazza, which is surrounded by the castle and the 15th century build-

VIGEVANO

ings that hosted the fortified compound’s various facilities.

On the right of the main entrance, the dukes’ impressive stables occupy the entire western side of the complex. First there are the imposing ones made by the Moro.

Large and very impressive halls constructed in 1490 and recently restored, the stables are divided in three naves by a double row of serizzo marble columns, and their solemnity bring to mind the interior of the monastic libraries of that same period. Coming next are the stables on the sides of the western entrance that go back to the times of Galeazzo Maria; above them are the rooms reserved for courtiers and servants. The laundering facilities were in the southwestern corner of the yard, above which there was the fine falconry loggia. The rooms on the left of the entrance, in the northwestern corner, hosted the kitchens and the

bread furnace. In the 15th century the buildings overlooking the large courtyard were multicoloured. The trompe l’œil murals displayed faux rustication in coloured marble, punctuated by subtle Corinth columns, entablatures with monsters, cornucopias, coat-of-arms and medallions, without mentioning the gilded dolphins that decorated the brick curved windows of the upper floors. Traces of such decorations are still visible.

In the eastern side of the courtyard there stands the keep proper, imposing in its structure of bricks and with its four corner slightly protruding towers. Opening on a U-shaped courtyard devoid of porticos, it was at one time surrounded by a moat and a further curtain endowed with access tower and ravelin. The keep’s façade has been partially aligned to the neogothic style imposed by Ludovico

Beatrice d’Este’s dressing rooms In the last decade of the 15th century, the castle hosted the opulent rooms of Beatrice d’Este, which contemporary records say were brimming with objects the most precious and unusual. Almost as if anticipating a 16th century Wunderkammer, the rooms displayed not only Venetian glass and crystal vases, decorated porcelains and ceramics, dog collars and other hunting paraphernalia in pure gold, enamel and hardstone carvings, rare perfumes and essences in ampoules and a range of other curiosities, but also other luxury products from Vigevano. To imagine how the camerini of Beatrice d’Este could have been, one could refer to the alabaster rooms – or what remains of them dispersed in various museums around the world – of Alfonso

d’Este, or to the study rooms at Mantova of the marchioness Isabella, both of whom were Beatrice’s siblings. The rooms of the Duchess of Bari, however, did not share the cerebral mythological symbology or antiquary passion of the Mantova and Ferrara milieus. What prevailed here at Vigevano was the sheer pleasure of ostentation, the showing off objects precious and rare, which was a typical trait of the Sforza court. Not surprisingly an envoy of the duke of Ferrara, in closely describing Beatrice’s rooms, called them, not without a tinge of irony and snobbery, as «nice shops».

Master of the Sforza Altarpiece, Beatrice d’Este, detail from the Sforza Altarpiece, 1497 ca. Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera

77

Trivulzio’s arrases The Marshal of France Gian Giacomo Trivulzio commissioned a series of outstanding arrases in the early part of the 16th century.

Dedicated to the cycle of months, they are now kept at the Sforza Castle in Milan. Woven on cartons designed by the Bramantino, the arrases are a fine example of Vigevano’s handcrafting skills, whose splendour continued well after the end of the Sforza regime.

Vigevano handicraft, Benedetto da Milano, September, 1504-1509. Milan, Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Applicata

The castle stables, Vigevano.

These vast rooms were commissioned by Ludovico il Moro

78

Inverardi, the architect who was in charge of the restorations carried out in the 19th century. Such interventions partially standardised the stratification of the gothic-like openings due to the various phases

of construction and dating back to the times of Galeazzo Maria. The wooden coffering in the rooms inside was plain or in caissons or lacunar, containing painted tablets. The vaults that are visible today are the outcome of later restorations as can be assessed by the pattern of the surviving decorative strips.

The central wing of the castle consists of a double row of rooms: those overlooking the courtyard go back to the time of Luchino, while Galeazzo Maria probably added those in the south. The ducal apartments were probably located here, but it is very difficult to understand how they were arranged and decorated. Historical sources mention five large apartments and a vast hall reserved for ball games, all frescoed, as were probably the façades of the keep.

Portions of the decorations inside emerged during the restoration of the 1980s: early 15th century compass-shape decorative patterns in the embrasures of the windows and a lively hunting scene, going back to the time of Galeazzo Maria, as well as a very elegant frieze with monstrous creatures, probably from the time of the last Sforza duke. These are but the pale shadows of the glory that was

VIGEVANO Hunting scene, detail.

Vigevano, Visconti-Sforza castle, frescoed hall at the mastio

once the residence of the Sforza – traces that are visible only when the rooms of the keep are in use for temporary events.

Behind the mastio there lies what remains of the enlargement commissioned by the Moro in honour of his wife and newborn son Massimiliano, which can be seen only from the side of via Riberia. In 1493, two new wings were constructed with a hanging garden between them featuring fountains complete with jeux d’eau. An elegant loggia fronted a new block that coasted the street and contained four rooms. It would

appear that the rooms were decorated by Bramante and included a new ducal chapel as well as the «cello tondo» room whose vault bore astronomic and astrologic frescoes inspired by Giovanni Dondi’s astrarium at Pavia Castle.

Of the loggia only the marble skeleton frame remains, walled up on what is known as the Loggia delle Dame wing, the garden has been entirely covered while the row of Bramante rooms was reconstructed in the 16th century following the emergence of problems relating to overall structural stability.

79

ROCCA VECCHIA

ROCCA VECCHIA, THE OLD ROCK (OF BELRIGUARDO) MUNICIPALITY: Vigevano (Pavia) TYPOLOGY: castle, fortification FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with reconstructions CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, exhibition and events venue Entrance to the covered street, Vigevano

The covered street between the Rock and the castle, Vigevano

80

When the fortification was turned into the lord’s residence, Luchino Visconti constructed Rocca Vecchia, the Old Rock, with a view to fortifying the town’s southern sector. Squareshaped with four corner towers and two watch towers that interrupt the wall on the western and eastern sides, the Old Rock had two main gates, one in the direction of the countryside and canal, and the other leading to the banked up road that was successively covered. The latter was over 150-

metres-long and linked the rock to the castle. By skirting the town centre, the street acted as a privileged route in and out of town, providing an independent access to the ducal residence.

Among Vigevano’s ruins, Rocca Vecchia is undoubtedly one of the most impressive and fascinating.

Demolished by the people of Vigevano after the death of duke Filippo Maria, Rocca Vecchia was partly reconstructed by Francesco Sforza (1450-1466). In the final years of the 15th century, a garden was created within the enclosure that provided a highly scenic entrance for the ducal procession as it arrived at the castle via boat. The towers afforded an outstanding view on the surrounding campagna, which was dominated by the imposing bulk of the Sforzesca, the duke’s model farm. In the 1830s, the area where the Old Rock stood became part of a military base of the Piedmont army. The fine truss building containing the riding stables was constructed at that time and is currently an exhibition and events venue.

VIGEVANO

81

PALAZZO SANSEVERINO

PALAZZO SANSEVERINO (THE NEW ROCK) MUNICIPALITY: Vigevano (Pavia) TYPOLOGY: aristocratic residence, fortress FAMILY LINEAGE: Sanseverino, Avalos STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with reconstructions CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, private residence

Sébastien de Pontault, Carte du Gouvernement de Vigevano, 1676-1694, detail. The star-shaped bastion constructed by the Spanish is visible

82

Significant remnants of what was at one time the residence of Galeazzo Sanseverino, captain of the Sforza troops as well as son-inlaw and courtier of the Moro, survive at n. 19 and n. 21, corso della Repubblica. Built in the early 1490s deep in the countryside, palazzo Sanseverino is unique in Lombardy architecture with its rectangular layout oriented along the cardinal axes. It reproduced with the nearby quarter, albeit on a

reduced scale, the relationship existing between the Sforza castle and the city in Milan. If in Milan the area west of the castle featured the Dominican church of Santa Maria delle Grazie and palazzo Sanseverino, in Vigevano as well the San Pietro Martire church (also belonging to the same order) and the bailiff’s house were located west of the castle, thereby reorienting urban development.

A drawing conserved at the state archive in Milan allows for a reconstruction of the original aspect of the construction. Rather unusually conceived without porticos and loggias, it featured two entrances placed on the main axes – most likely corresponding to the original gates to the city and countryside – and two building blocks on the lesser ones. Accesses and connections divided the building into four corner apartments for each floor.

The master floor rooms were connected with a ledge that originally must have extended all around the courtyard. This provided not only a practical access way but also acted as a characteristic (present also at Mirabello) balcony that was the ideal place to be when feasts and pageants unfolded below.

In 1495, as clouds darkened the political horizon and the need arose to fortify Vigevano, the spacious Sanseverino residence was militarised. The central block of the building, which was flanked by the stables (similar to the ones in Vigevano Castle), was paced within four thick wall curtains, joined at the corner by a massive circular tower.

The two long façades were strengthened by two diamond-tipped ravelins. In 1534, Francesco II Sforza showed an unexpected interest for the castle, undertaking repairs, fixing the moats and turning them into fishtanks, constructing the wide por-

VIGEVANO

tico on the northern wing and ordering decorations to be made inside. It was probably also his initiative to draw up plans for the construction of a helical staircase whose structure was a combination between that in French castles and the one designed

by Bramante for the Vatican. Successively under the Spanish, the new feudal lord Alfonso d’Avalos, after having rejected the option of residing at the Sforza castle, opted for Rocca Nuova, where his wife, Mary of Aragon held court. Following his death in the palace, the complex lost its residential value and was definitely transformed into a fortress.

Strengthened by a star-shaped bastion, New Rock became the diamond tip of the Vigevano fortification system. Besieged and taken by the French 1645, it was razed to the ground when the Spanish returned the following year. Only the central nucleus was spared from destruction, the old palazzo Sanseverino, which was donated to sister Eustachia della Santa Croce and converted into a Clarisse convent.

The building is now a private property. The exterior has been completely absorbed within the urban fabric, but the partially restructured internal courtyard has essentially maintained its original structure.

Running over a part of it there is the original bridge, resting on solid serizzo marble brackets. On the western façade, the large windows – vaulted and with brick ferrule – are a telltale sign of the structure’s original residential vocation.

Layout of the Rock, first-half of the 16th century. Milan, Archivio di Stato Northern wing of palazzo Sanseverino, Vigevano 83

VILLANOVA DI CASSOLNOVO CASTLE

VILLANOVA DI CASSOLNOVO CASTLE (LA MAURA) MUNICIPALITY: Cassolnovo (Pavia), locality of Villanova TYPOLOGY: ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Barbavara, Sanseverino, Sforza, Trivulzio, Gonzaga, Costa di Beauregard STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, farm, private residence

View of the castle, Cassolnovo

Among the ducal castles of the Sforzas, the one at Villanova is unique. Significantly defined in old documents as a «residence», a «palatium», «a fine square-shaped residence [...] almost like a castle» and never as a fortress, the complex was designed to look like a fine,

large, place of recreation in the heart of Galeazzo Maria’s game reserve that was successively transformed by Ludovico il Moro into a farm. Reports from the 10th century mention a castrum at Villanova, which is now in Pavia province but at one time under the ecclesiastical and administrative jurisdiction of nearby Novara. In the 14th century, the Vallombrosan monastery of San Bartolomeo in Novara owned a castle as well as a farm in this area. The monks initially leased the lands to the Barbavaras, a family whose interests were concentrated here, and successively to Roberto Sanseverino, the Neapolitan condottiero, nephew of Francesco Sforza.

Though another fortification was attested in the 1450s, it was only in 1472 that there is evidence of Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s intention to making new buildings at Villanova. At this time, Sanseverino took

CASSOLNOVO

over the full possession of the Villanova estate from the monastery of San Bartolomeo with the declared intention of selling the entire property to the duke.

Between 1473 and 1474, work was in full swing for the building of the new castle designed by the Florentine architect Benedetto Ferrini but constructed by other engineers and architects from Milan, namely Danesio Maineri and Maffeo da Como, who also worked in Novara, Vigevano, and Galliate, and Pietro da Lonate, who was involved with the castles of Pavia and Milan. Work went ahead. In 1474, the attention focused on the interior decoration, while the following year saw the visit of Ferdinando, son of the king of Naples Ferrante I; but soon after activity at the construction site slowed down as funds began to dry out. Towards the end of 1476, the duke felt the need to fortify the “house” at Villanova but when he was assassinated the work that had started to this end were interrupted definitely. The successive year, the complex was once again handed over to Sanseverino, but due to Roberto’s seesawing policies – he initially sided with Galeazzo Maria’s widow Bona di Savoia, then against her alongside the Moro and finally against the Moro himself – the Villanova estate and castle returned to the Sforzas.

It is likely Ludovico il Moro may have completed the venue, transforming it into the headquarters of a very large farm of some 20,000 perches. For the irrigation of the Villanova estate and that of Vigevano (the Sforzesca), part of the waters of the Sesia was channelled in a new ditch, the Mora roggia. As for Villanova Castle – nicknamed “la Maura” or “la Mora” – was donated, together with Cusago Castle, to

Beatrice d’Este, the duke’s spouse.

With the collapse of the Sforza state and the French invasion, the venue followed the fortunes of Vigevano becoming the privilege of the representatives of the powers that succeeded each other in the government of the dukedom, namely Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, Matteo Schiner, bishop of Sion, Ferrante Gonzaga.

In the 19th century, the area’s agricultural vocation was definitely endorsed by the extensive work carried out by the Marquises of Costa di Beauregard.

Two worn out and rather disturbing marble statues – probably dating back to Roman times – welcome visitors where the old drawbridge crossed the now interred castle moat, a testimony of the Moro’s antiquary passion. (Although it is difficult to establish with certainty when the statues were actually placed where they are now). While the building itself appears to be in a state of neglect and brings to mind a

Melones dulces, in Tacuinum sanitatis, 1390 ca., detail. Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

85

Northern wing of Villanova Castle, Cassolnovo

The corner tower of Villanova Castle, Cassolnovo. Traces of the original decorations are still visible 86

vast farmhouse, it has essentially maintained its ancient structure. It is rectangular with four towers, which rise but little above the building blocks, and two entrances. The city entrance in the northeast wing still bears the grooves that at one time sustained the drawbridge and the plank, and is framed by a fifth tower featuring merlons. Opposite the first and opening out on the Novara countryside, the second entrance is exclusively for pedestrians and was once equipped with a mobile bridge. Nearly all the façades display an array of regular openings on two floors; the windows are low-arched and should correspond to the original ones dating back to the Sforzas. The façades are covered with decorative patterns depicting black and dark purple rhombuses. At the centre, the large, nearly square, courtyard is similar to those that can be found in Lombardy farmhouses and presents no decorations. Features of the courtyard are two rows of long wooden balconies. In the counter façade there is a single ledge while a different type of protruding beams sustains the eaves.

Defined in some sources as being «entirely decorated,» the castle must have been covered in all its façades by a pattern of white and dark purple rhombuses. (Those that are visible today are most likely the outcome of a remake). While it is difficult to reconstruct the internal layout at the time of the Sforzas, the presence of the following is nevertheless documented: a large hall reserved for ball games designed by engineer Pietro da Lonate at the same time of the residences of Milan and Pavia; a chapel; a large kitchen; and a series of apartments for the duke and his courtiers consisting of sixty-nine rooms. A further proof of the building’s non-military function is represented by the construction of the stables outside the walled quadrilateral (recognisable in the structures north of the castle).

The dog pounds, on the other hand, were located in town, together with the quarters of the servants who followed the court during their hunting expeditions.

The small urban centre, which has maintained its farming vocation, develops northwest of the palazzo within a closed structure that is significantly regular. Access is gained through a gate, placed almost in line with the manor, surmounted by a rise in the shape of a tower.

The farmstead frames what appears to be a vast courtyard in the Lombardy style cut in two and now literally invaded by several modern buildings. The castle is in the southern corner of the quadrilateral, while the church is in the northern side, at a central position.

The closed structure of the town well reflects its original documented function as a ricetto, a small fortified area used in Italian villages for protection of the residents in case of attack.

CASSOLNOVO

87

CASTLE TRAIL 4

In the «regions of the Viscontis» A three-part itinerary SOMMA LOMBARDO CASSANO MAGNAGO FAGNANO OLONA CISLAGO JERAGO CON ORAGO ALBIZZATE CASTELLETTO SOPRA TICINO ANGERA INVORIO MASSINO VISCONTI

Master of Angera, Napo Della Torre led to place of his imprisonment, 1280 ca, detail. Angera, Rocca Borromeo, Sala della Giustizia (Justice Hall)

Visconti is a famous name. It was the name of the lords of Milan; the name of the family that from the late 1200s to the 1400s dominated the political scene in the city and the region. When the name Visconti is mentioned the thought goes – for example – to archbishop Otto, the founder of the family fortunes, whose feats are magnificently epitomised in Angera Castle. Or to Azzone (1329-1339) who gave new impetus to Visconti rule, successfully giving to it a regional connotation after the family had been for decades in the doldrums. Kept in Milan’s San Gottardo church, his tomb is decorated with the effigies of the city he conquered. And, of course, the thought goes back to the most famous Visconti of them all: Gian Galeazzo (1378-1402), the first among the Viscontis to have claimed the title of duke of Milan.

The great family, of course, was not exclusively about these illustrious figures. The Viscontis split into many branches, which were linked to the main lineage by varying degrees of parentage and characterised by differing wealth and power. And it was often just these “lateral” branches of the family that emerged as the local power brokers, not only by backing the dukes, but also in many cases as opponents – often of the nastiest kind. In 1339, for example, Azzone was seriously threatened by another Visconti, Lodrisio who owned many castles in the Seprio and who was finally overcome, but only with great difficulty, at the Battle of Parabiago. And when in 1385 Gian Galeazzo Visconti murdered Bernabò, the uncle he had until then shared power with, it was the other members of Visconti House who unsuccessfully coalesced to down the “tyrant” Gian Galeazzo.

The role of the cadet branches emerged even more forcefully when the ducal lineage ended with the death of Filippo Maria (1412-1447), the last of the Visconti dukes. None of the remaining Visconti branches were able to present a viable candidate to the ducal throne so much so that at the end it was Francesco Sforza (1450-1466), a “foreign” condottiero who prevailed. The succession, though, wouldn’t have been successful if it hadn’t been for the help of several exponents of Visconti House. Lancillotto and Ermes Visconti di Castelletto, for example, were key in turning the tide in favour of the Sforza in Novara, while significant help also came from Filippo Maria Visconti di Fagnano, master of Albizzate and Fontaneto and very powerful in the lands west of Milan. Of course, the backing was not disinterested as Filippo Maria himself wrote to the new duke Francesco Sforza: his commitment for the new duke was also for the 89

IN THE «REGIONS OF THE VISCONTIS»

Privilege of Filippo Maria Visconti, 1445. Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana. The duke invests Vitaliano Borromeo with the fiefdom of Arona

advantage of «his own house.»

Well-established in cities, nearly all the members of these cadet branches owned splendid buildings in the most elegant quarters, where they lived, met clients or entertained guests. But «to be a Vesconte» at that time meant having, above all, strong interest in the campagna just outside Milan. It meant owning extensive lands, of course, but it also meant tax revenues and jurisdiction rights – it meant to be lords of what where in all effects seigniorial possessions endowed with special status within the dukedom. To claim that these possessions were “feuds” was probably incorrect because in most cases those claims were legally groundless or based on very vague, if not mysterious, reasons. The cadet branches of the family often based their claims on a de facto situation, on a tradition immemorial. They affirmed to be exercising a “private” power, a seigniorial right that while in some cases may have descended from imperial investiture was never the outcome of a ducal concession. As late as the 18th century, these powerful lords boasted that their seigniorial possessions around Milan were «sine lege,» legitimised by the law itself and not by force of concessions granted from above.

From the point of view of the Viscontis, the key question at stake was not to propose themselves as the lords of “small states,” wholly independent from the dukedom. But to highlight the private nature of their dominion on lands and villages – claiming that it was not a feudal concession from the duke – was very useful not only in limiting the prince’s and his officers’ meddling into their affairs, but also in allowing them to maximise the privileges attached to those lands. In practical terms by ensuring total fiscal immunity to their possessions meant reiterating their status as protected jurisdictions not susceptible to the intromission of central government officers. This was the basic claim, but the dukes often had no qualms about asserting their power to cut 90

CASTLE TRAIL 4

91

IN THE «REGIONS OF THE VISCONTIS»

those privileges. Yet assertive action of this kind was energy draining and was often exceptional nature. Thus under normal conditions the areas placed under the rule of the Viscontis around Milan did indeed appear to be places endowed with special statutory rights. “Without permission” many cities and villages were practically off limits to ducal tax collectors and officers, who were thus barred from entering to capture a fugitive or to seek the payment of tax dues. Seeking to apprehend a thief who had purloined a significant amount of money from him, an ecclesiastic wrote to the Moro towards the end of the 15th century saying it had become perfectly clear to him that local officers nor, for that matter, the duke himself, could do little to help him capture the culprit. In fact the thief was hiding at Golasecca, a village that, as the priest wrote, was in «Vicecomitum regiones», in the «Visconti regions.» And in those lands controlled by the Viscontis, only the Viscontis could do something.

While particularly significant in that portion of the county of Milan just beyond the Adda where the descendants of the ousted duke Bernabò owned vast estates, the presence of the Viscontis was just as strong in the south, where the area’s most fertile lands were concentrated. But it was in northwest Milan, between the Seprio and the present day Piedmont shore of Lake Maggiore, that many cadet branches of Visconti House cast – as the saying went at that time – their shadow. The famous biscia, or snake, the family coat-of-arms, was recurrent in the many castles of the area, while this or that branch of Visconti House controlled many local villages. These were, after all, the lands the prelate was complaining about when he made reference to the «Vicecomitum regions.»

The castle trail will take us in this area, between the Seprio and the lands beyond the Ticino, along estates and villages whose past masters were members of the cadet branches of Visconti House. Of course, not all urban settlements belonged to the Viscontis, nor was the power they exercised so clearly established or defined. Throughout most of the 15th century, the borders of the «Visconti regions,» the territorial extension of their influence, continued essentially to be mobile and porous and impossible to define with any degree of certainty. Yet the list of lands under certain Visconti rule was very long. Barely 20 kilometres from Milan, Cislago was the first village in the Seprio the Viscontis of the Somma lineage controlled. Going further west, there were Fagnano, Cassano Magnago, Crenna, Jerago, Orago, Albizzate, Caidate, Besnate, Somma, Mezzana, Vergiate, Golasecca, Sesto Calende, and, beyond the Ticino, Castelletto, Fontaneto, Paruzzaro, Oleggio Castello, Invorio, Massino, Lesa, Ornavasso. These towns often had castles, which were useful not only for defensive or military purposes but also, during “normal” times, as the hinge around which Visconti 92

Circle of Cristoforo De’ Predis, Sforza Coat-of-Arms, in De sphaera, 1470 ca.

Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria

CASTLE TRAIL 4

power developed in a given area. Though the Viscontis lived here but sporadically, from these castles their podestĂ and estate managers administered justice and their extensive property. The presence of these officers in a day-to-day contact with the local populations ultimately contributed to consolidating the power of the Viscontis.

Defined in many cases by specific events and structural developments, the many fortresses that dot the landscape around the Seprio, upper Novara, Vergante, escape generalisations. But having said this, two considerations can provide a better picture of the overall context within which these castles developed.

The principal urban centre under Visconti control, Somma, had a population of most probably not more than a thousand at the end of the 15th century. And none of the fortresses cast their shadows in the main cities northwest of Milan, for Legnano, Busto Arsizio, Gallarate was not in Visconti country. While still quite close to the family’s original area of historical integration into society, Arona itself came under the Viscontis but for a brief spell, specifically under its Cassano MagnagoFagnano branch. Pervasive especially in the smaller settlements along the Milan-Lake Maggiore direction, the Visconti presence was marginal in the richer and more populous centres where inhabitants often enough took action with a view to curbing the powerful family’s local influence. In 1402, for example, citizens of Busto Arsizio and Gallarate besieged the Visconti castle at Orago, damaging part of it.

Warship, detail, in Bern Chronicles by Diebold Schilling the Elder, 1483 ca.

Zurich, Zentralbibliothek.

Lake Maggiore and the Upper Ticino were key to the defensive and trade systems between the plain and the Alps

93

IN THE «REGIONS OF THE VISCONTIS»

94

CASTLE TRAIL 4

Visconti coat-of-Arms and feats, in Codice Trivulziano 1390, 1450 ca. Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana

The second observation that should be made arises, on the other hand, from a comparison of some of the citadels closest to the Visconti fortresses. Generally located near the urban centres, possibly on a rise, the Visconti castle often stood alongside the church, control of which was indeed one of the natural prerogatives of the lords. This also occurred with the property of other Milanese aristocratic families, namely the castles of the Bossi at Azzate, of the Besozzi at Besozzo, of the Pusterla at Tradate, of the Castiglioni at Castiglione. Take, for example, Pusterla Castle at Tradate; here, too, the fortress is located on top a low hill just outside the town’s oldest part and is flanked by Santa Maria in Castro, a chapel closely connected to the manor. In Tradate, Besozzo and Azzate the fortress itself though is flanked by a thickly set row of aristocratic homes, bearing the coat-of-arms of the Pusterla, Besozzi and Bossi. These were the residences of the families not belonging to the main branch of the ruling family, besides being the tangible sign of how the local power of the principal branch had developed in a long established “family” setting. Surprisingly, this arrangement is absent where Visconti fortresses are found, especially in the area east of the Ticino. In fact, if the layout according to which aristocratic homes flank the castle does not occur at Somma, Albizzate, Besnate, Jerago and the other villages of the Seprio where there is a Visconti fortress, it does, on the other hand, take place in the fortified towns of the Bossi, Pusterla, Besozzi and Castiglioni. This is probably the single most eloquent and tangible feature of Visconti presence. It is a clear indication of the Viscontis’ late arrival in the Seprio, an area that did not feature the long-time presence of a dominating family and where the definition of clear-cut spheres of influences did not occur until well into the 13th century. It was just this “parental strata” that sustained the hegemony of the other aristocratic families present in the area since much longer. That “parental strata” on the other hand was available to the Viscontis west of the Ticino, at Massino, at Invorio, in lands where the presence of the family could be traced well back in time. It is no coincidence, in fact, that here the urban development layout is more akin to that in Tradate and Azzate than in Somma and other localities of the Seprio controlled by the Viscontis themselves.

Presently utilised for a wide range of purposes, and in varying degrees of conservation, many of the Visconti castles in this vast stretch of land deserve to be visited. As a single itinerary covering the principal castles would be impossible, an alternative would be to set three different trails, all starting from the Somma Lombardo Castle, which is probably the most attractive among the ancient Visconti fortresses.

Departing from the Somma Castle, the first itinerary could be dedicated to the eastern sector of the «Visconti region.» On leaving the fortress, the route would initially lead to Gallarate, preferably avoiding the present day Statale del Sempione road and relying instead on the old route to Arsago Seprio, where a required stop is to admire the splendid Romanic pieve with baptistery dating back to the 12th century. At Gallarate, the road climbs up Crenna hill, now a quarter of the city but an independent municipality until 1923, where it is possible to command a view over the ruins of the old Visconti castle of the same 95

IN THE «REGIONS OF THE VISCONTIS»

name. Located alongside the parish church of San Zenone, at the very top of the hill, dominating the plain underneath, the castle’s fortunes were linked to those of Lodrisio Visconti, the unlucky protagonist of the Battle of Parabiago mentioned earlier. At the start of the 14th century, Lodrisio elected the castle as his privileged residence, prompting a series of significant restructuring. Of that very strong castle – «castrum fortissimum», as the chronicler Pietro Azario wrote – very little remains today. The interventions carried out in the 19th century were, on the other hand, very incisive, as can be observed in the Gallarate façade of one of the complex’s principal buildings. Walking a few steps further down along via Locarno to the intersection with Salita Visconti offers an idea of just how vast the original fortified perimeter was. From Salita Visconti it also possible to admire the most suggestive among the buildings that once formed the fortified complex.

Back to Gallarate, the road leads to Cassano and successively to Fagnano, the localities hosting the castles of two of the major branches of Visconti House. On leaving Fagnano, following the indications to Gorla Maggiore, the road crosses Olona valley before heading to Mozzate all the way to Cislago Castle, the ancient possession of the Visconti di Somma, who chose it as their favourite residence until the early part of the 15th century.

The second itinerary is quite similar to this one and is dedicated to exploring the Visconti castles along the river Arno. Here, too, the route after leaving Somma leads to Arsago and its Romanic country church.

But rather than proceeding to Gallarate, the route leads to the north in the direction of Besnate, the small village from which in medieval times a branch of the Viscontis took their name. The castle that once stood here is now very different and appears before our eyes as a private home and a restaurant, aptly called Il Castellaccio, «The Rock».

The complex, part of which is in a poor state of conservation, presents some fragments of its original structure, namely the ruins of the ancient castle towers and, above all, the oratory of Santa Maria in castello, the castle’s beautiful chapel located east of the main building block. The nearby parish church of San Martino contain two fine paintings of two past owners of the castle, Ercole and Gerolamo Visconti depicted with Saint Anthony the Great and Saint Anthony of Padova in a 1538 altarpiece that is conserved in the church. More austere and forceful is Jerago Castle, just a few minutes away at Besnate.

At Orago, where what remains of the castle owned by the branch of Visconti House with the same name can be admired, the itinerary could continue to the fortress of Albizzate with its magnificent 14th century oratory. The northern most point of the itinerary could thus be Caidate, presently a hamlet coming under the jurisdiction of the municipality of Albizzate. Here stands the Confalonieri Castle, named after its 18th century owners. Gradually transformed into a villa starting from the 17th century, it was returned to its castle-like appearance by the architect Giuseppe Balzaretto in the 19th century. With its original quadrilateral layout, the castle has maintained, albeit restructured, the bulky northwestern tower, a true vestige of the Age of the Viscontis.

A feature of the third itinerary could be the highly suggestive land96

CASTLE TRAIL 4

Lute player, 17th century.

Somma Lombardo, Visconti di San Vito Castle

scapes of Lake Maggiore. Departing from Somma, this time heading north, the advice is to pull out of Strada del Sempione and follow the indications for Golasecca. The less beaten road leads to Golasecca and then to Sesto Calende, an old market town where the tallage charged for all river-transported to and from Milan and other cities was collected. The old castle owned by the Visconti Castelletto is extant, namely its two heavily reconstructed towers concealed by the buildings of the town but visible from via dell’Olmo. The town’s lungofiume or riverfront is well worth the visit, offering visitors who have little time with the option of either proceeding north in the direction of the splendid stronghold at Angera, the only fortress in the area that did not belong to a cadet branch of the Visconti, or to cross the river and head for the oldest among the Visconti venues. For those opting for the latter, the route leads to the fortress of Castelletto Ticino and, successively, to that of Invorio Inferiore, which is reached by following the road to Arona and then turning in the direction of Oleggio Castello and Paruzzaro. Commanding a splendid view on the lake, Massino Visconti’s castle can then be reached following the highly scenic Alto Vergante road, bringing the itinerary to a magnificent closure.

97

THE CASTLE OF THE VISCONTI DI SAN VITO MUNICIPALITY: Somma Lombardo (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Visconti di San Vito STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, museum, exhibitions venue and headquarters of the Visconti di San Vito Foundation

Arguably the most impressive among the Visconti castles in the Seprio, the Castle of the Visconti di San Vito is located a few hundred metres from piazza Vittorio Veneto, the central square of Somma Lombardo, a short distance from the fine town hall and Sant’Agnese, the parish church.

The Strada del Sempione coasts along its eastern flank and is therefore more isolated today with respect to the town itself than it was in the early part of the 19th century when the important road passed west of the fortress The southern side of the Visconti di San Vito castle, Somma Lombardo. The 16th century tower is equipped with a bastion-shaped outwork

98

where via Visconti di Modrone now is. There are entrances on the side of piazza Scipione in the south, and on the long northern flank. There is a large open space in front of the gates, with the one in the south sloping upwards.

Constructed by the Viscontis between the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th, the original nucleus of the present day castle was part of a landscape featuring a number of older fortifications, chief among which was the strategic castrum, named after Gulizone, which stood around the year 1000 where the Sant’Agnese church now is. At the beginning of the 11th century, the castle was owned by the monks of Milan’s San Simpliciano monastery, donated by an obscure local potentate, the Gulizone mentioned earlier. Spread over a surface of some 2,500 sq. m, the fortified area comprised a tower, cottages, homes. From the 12th century onwards, the owner of the fortification was grated

SOMMA LOMBARDO

seigniorial rights over the village as well. But in the course of the following century, the monks’ grip on Somma loosened as records testifying the presence of the San Simpliciano monastery gradually died down and a new family started to make a name for itself. Named after the town itself, the da Somma family besides boasting a strong presence also in Milan, owned conspicuous property in and enjoyed extensive rights over the village and surrounds.

Though records of their initial rise are scarce, the influence of the Viscontis on the da Sommas appears to be of little importance in these early years. Around mid1200, the family owned property at Somma as well as nearby villages. It would only be with the consolidation of Visconti power in Milan following the defeat of the Della Torre, that control of Somma become more defined, assuming a seigniorial connotation. Allied with the Della Torre family, the da Sommas soon disappeared, leaving the stage, at the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries to a branch of Visconti House referable to the brother of the future lord of Milan, Matteo Visconti, who died in 1322.

The construction of the castle is therefore strictly connected to the consolidation of Visconti power in the area between the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries. Abandoning the old castrum, which soon fell into decay, the Viscontis began constructing in those years a new fortress on the nearby rise on which stood the Sant’Agnese pieve, which at that time was located near the castle’s present day southern façade. The so-

called “Courtyard of the Armigeri” that is now visible in the northwestern courtyard was most likely constructed at this time, while the other buildings around it were additions of the following century.

Though little is known for certain about what the Visconti da Somma did at a local level in the following decades, members of the family consolidating their interests in the county, often playing prominent roles in the centre of power in Milan. In the years between the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries, the brothers in power at Somma, Francesco and Antonio Visconti, were staunch opponents to duke Gian Galeazzo, as well as frontline players in the turmoil that broke out in Milan and throughout the dukedom at the death of the duke. The two were among the fiercest in the faction opposing the new duke Giovanni Maria (1402-1412) and were both killed in 1408, their possessions and rights handed to Battista Visconti, the only one among Antonio’s sons to have maintained a position that was not hostile to the ducal branch of the family.

After having obtained in 1420 a

Shaving plates. Somma Lombardo, Visconti di San Vito Castle

99

renewal from duke Filippo Maria of his rights on Somma, and the town’s related fiscal and juridical privileges, Battista appointed as heirs his two sons, Francesco and Guido, who starting from the 1440s gave new impetus to the family’s ambitions in the Seprio.

Numerous villages under the jurisdiction of Somma, Mezzana and Arsago regularly paid annual tributes to the brothers demanding in exchange protection against the fiscal claims made by the duke’s officials. Backed by a policy of extensive land acquisitions, Francesco and Guido’s project was further boosted by the crisis that flared following the

death of duke Filippo Maria. Siding with Francesco Sforza, the two Viscontis succeeded in extending their influence across the entire area coming under the jurisdictions of the parishes of Somma, Mezzana and Arsago, which in all effects had eluded all forms of state control. But with Francesco Sforza firmly consolidating his grip on power after 1455, the two brothers’ ambition had to be necessarily curbed.

While losing their “new acquisitions,” Francesco and Guido were nevertheless able to keep Somma, Mezzana, Golasecca and Vergiate, which were officially included into their fiefdom.

Two Renaissance masterpieces hidden in the moor It was 1512 when Battista Visconti di Somma commissioned Marco d’Oggiono to paint a triptych depicting The Assumption and the Saints Stephen and John Baptist. Originally made for the Santo Stefano church at Mezzana, whose patron was Battista Visconti, the masterpiece is now kept at Museo Diocesano in Milano. Nevertheless, the church at Mezzano currently hosts two other undisputed masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance: The Pentecost and The Deposition by Bramantino. Kept at Santo Stefano since the 17th century but for a spell in the Santa Maria della Ghianda church behind, the two paintings may have come from the burial chapels reserved to the Viscontis of the Somma branch at Sant’Angelo, the Franciscan church in Milan. Notwithstanding their poor state of conservation and positioning, the two

100

paintings on wood immediately reveal a masterly use of the perspective. In particular, in The Pentecost – most likely made on Bramantino’s return from a trip to Rome around 1508 – the characters are aligned to produce maximum theatrical effect. At the centre, the Virgin is at the top of a staircase, under a weighty portico with Doric columns; the twelve apostles around her are in skilfully contrasted green and red; the four on the foreground have forlorn expressions as they lean on the magnificent chairs that are decorated in the old style.

Bartolomeo Suardi (aka Bramantino), Pentecost, 1510 ca. Mezzana di Somma Lombardo, Santo Stefano

SOMMA LOMBARDO The northern side of the Visconti di San Vito Castle, Somma Lombardo

It was in these years in the mid1450s that Francesco and Guido Visconti showed a renewed interest for the area around Somma, initiating the work that defined the shape of the castle as we see it today. Starting from 1452, the extensive work carried out to enlarge the castle culminated with the construction on the eastern flank of the four-sided fortification of a second courtyard, complete with corner towers, two of which “shared” with the original nucleus. Located on the construction site, the old Sant’Agnese church was demolished and rebuilt, at the expense of the two Visconti brothers, a few hundred metres further south where it now stands, exactly where the old Gulizone Castle was. Following a rift between the two brothers, the family’s property and rights were divided in 1473, including the enlarged castle which was split in two parts. Francesco received the newer section plus one-half of Somma, with Guido getting the old courtyard and seigniorial

rights over all men living in the western part of town.

Passed down by the brothers to their respective heirs, the two sections of the castle were never again to be reunited. On the contrary, the castle underwent further divisions and dispersals throughout the modern era besides a series of other works aimed at further enlarging parts of it. The fortress currently occupies the space of a large quadrilateral, essentially divided in four blocks developing around as many courtyards: the northwestern (aka Corte degli Armigeri), which was assigned to Guido and to his descendants; the southwestern, which was passed down in the 16th century to the Visconti di Modrone branch; and the two eastern ones – at one time divided by a wall – which remained with Francesco’s heirs, later called the Visconti of San Vito.

Entering the castle from piazza Ermes Visconti on the northern side, immediately on the right, preceded by a small tower that 101

The Armigeri Courtyard of the Visconti di San Vito Castle, Somma Lombardo

102

had been remade at the end of the 17th century, there is the entrance to the oldest section of the castle, the Cortile degli Armigeri. Dating to the same period is the round tower on the right of the entrance as well as a significant part of the current façade. Within the courtyard, though, the pointed arches and the thickset columns on two of the four sides no doubt go back to the 14th century to the time this section of the fortress was built.

Traces of graffito decorations are visible on the walls, as are the monogram of St. Bernardino of Siena and achievements of the Visconti’s carved on many capitals. Looking at the façade to the left of the piazza Ermes Visconti gate, there is the entrance to the courtyard made by Guido and Francesco Visconti in the 14th century accessing the northeastern courtyard, which was passed down to Francesco’s heirs. Visible on the same façade in a central position is one of the 14th century castle’s corner towers that were incorporated in the section constructed halfway into the follow-

ing century. On the extreme left there is one of the two highly impressive towers Francesco and Guido built anew – a tower that has undergone extensive restoration work in the 19th century.

Reconverted to a residential use starting from the 17th century, the courtyard features a large stairway leading to the upper floor in turn characterised by richly decorated rooms, one of which hosts a fine collection of antique shaving trays. The frescoes in the main hall and adjacent rooms are outstanding. They were made in the early part the 17th century to mark the marriage of a Visconti with a Taverna by an unknown artist who, however, may have been Carlo Antonio Procaccini and collaborators.

Leaving behind piazza Ermes Visconti, and walking, cautiously, along Strada del Sempione, you come across the part of the castle that was assigned to Francesco Visconti and his heirs and reach the south gate. On the left, a portal crowned by the Visconti coatof-arms leads to a small courtyard that acts as an “antechamber” of sorts to the southwestern courtyard, or the Court of Honour, access to which is gained passing underneath an entrance tower endowed with machicolations and decorated with merlons. This third section of the castle as it stands today was made after the two northern courtyards, probably in the 16th century and heavily redone since. On the right of the southern battlement there is the entrance to the fourth section of the castle, which hosted the castle’s support facilities and was directly linked to the northeastern courtyard. At present this is the castle’s main entrance, where guided tours start.

SOMMA LOMBARDO

The case of the unlucky countess In September 1514 the thirty-year-old Ermes Visconti, younger son of Battista, master of Somma, married the fourteen-year-old Bianca Maria Gaspardone. The orphan daughter of the deceased finance minister of the marquis of Casale Monferrato, Bianca Maria brought with her a huge dowry, amounting to the exorbitant sum of 25,000 écus, which was equivalent to the annual revenue of a small state.

Due to his very noble blood and her wealth, the two soon became the rising stars in the Milan of the early 16th century. In 1520, Ermes and Bianca Maria confirmed this status of theirs by entrusting the decoration of the San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore church in Milan to Bernardino Luini, as can be gathered from new documents that have emerged. The lunettes on the church’s partition wall show the Visconti couple surrounded by the family’s patron saints, namely St. Agnes and St. Stephen, who were also the protectors of Somma Lombardo and Mezzana besides the lands belonging to this branch of Visconti House. Indeed, the lunettes depict Ermes and Bianca Maria and not Ippolita Sforza and Alessandro Bentivoglio as was traditionally believed.

In Luini’s painting, Bianca Maria wears a dress in precious white satin decorated by 173 golden hatpins, while Ermes dons an elegant vest in black velvet and satin, lined with the fur of a «lupo cervero» (lynx).

On 11 May 1521, Ermes Visconti died suddenly following an illness. The young widow retired to her hometown Casale and the following year, out of the many that had proposed attracted by her wealth, she chose to marry count Renato Challant from the Aosta Valley. The relationship with the second husband, who was younger than her, soon soured. Bianca Maria returned to Casale where she met Roberto Ambrogio Sanseverino, count of Caiazzo – who became her lover – and where she drafted a will declaring her intention to be buried in the sepulchre of her beloved Ermes at Sant’Angelo in Milan. She followed the condottiero Sanseverino to Pavia, where she probably also had a relation with count Ardizzino Valperga di

Bernardino Luini, Bianca Maria Gaspardone Visconti, a detail of the partition wall, 1520 ca. Milan, San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore

Masino, before returning to Milan (1526). Its population decimated by the pestilence of 1524, Milan was besieged by the imperial troops led by the Constable of Bourbon. The countess stayed with her cousin Daria Pusterla Botta, who was by that time strongly compromised in political terms. And then something must have gone terribly wrong with Bianca Maria’s amorous relations. In August countess Challant was arrested alongside her new alleged lover, a Spaniard, and accused of having ordered the assassination of the brothers Valperga di Masino. No proof was ever found linking her to the murders, but on 20 October 1526 the Bourbon, who had in the meanwhile entered the city, ordered the execution of Bianca Maria, who was beheaded on the ravelin of Milan Castle.

The truculent tale flared the imagination of literati, the first of whom was the Dominican monk Matteo Bandello, who transformed the information he had gathered relating to the events into one of his most famous novellas, second in fame only to Romeo e Giulietta. In the 19th century, works focusing on the events relating to the life of countess Challant multiplied. Among them, the most interesting was La signora di Challant by Giuseppe Giacosa, librettist of Giacomo Puccini. In the meanwhile the myth about her portrait had grown, stimulated by the comment Bandello wrote at the end of his novella: «and whomsoever desires to see her visage painted while she was alive may go to the church at Monistero Maggiore, and there see her painting.» Today the graceful figure of the unfortunate countess, the one time lady of Somma Lombardo, may be admired in the painting Ermes Visconti commissioned to Bernardino Luini for Monastero Maggiore.

103

THE CASSANO MAGNAGO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Cassano Magnago (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Dal Pozzo STATE OF PRESERVATION: rebuilt CURRENT USE: private residence

Among the Visconti castles in the Seprio, the one at Cassano Magnago – now part of a gentle urbanisation process featuring low-lying houses with gardens – was the one that was furthest away from the nearest settlement. In fact, the town barely touched the rise occupied by the fortress, which until not long ago stood on that hill dominating the town, on its own flanked only by the church of Santa Maria del Cerro.

Owned by the Viscontis starting The façade of the Cassano Magnago Castle. The merlons and pointed arch windows were a 19th century addition

104

from the second-half of the 13th century, the fortress’ fortunes are linked to one of Visconti House’s most powerful branches – the one that starting from the 15th century went with the name of Cassano Magnago. Owners of vast swathes of landed property besides holding seigniorial rights over the village and being the patrons of the Santa Maria church, the Visconti of Cassano Magnago had turned the castle into the pivotal centre of their multifarious interests in the territory. A late medieval notarial deed reports that «Ca’ Bianca» – as the fortress was often called at that time – was home to the podestà, the lord’s official in charge of administering seigniorial jurisdiction in the area. Staying with him were also a handful of henchmen; a camparo, an estate manager in charge of lands; and often also the priest who officiated in the chapel

CASSANO MAGNAGO

Luigi Pietro Barinetti, Cassano Magnago, in Grande Illustrazione del Lombardo-Veneto by Cesare Cantù, 1858

founded by the lords at Santa Maria. It was here, in addition, that the large quantities of grain harvested in the estate was amassed, specifically on the building’s top floor, which consequently came to be known as the «fodder garret.»

Paucity of original records plus the extensive restructuring occurring over the past two centuries have made it practically impossible to reconstruct with any degree of precision the castle’s original layout.

But even so, Cassano still stands out for its originality with respect to the models that are recurrent in most Visconti strongholds in the Seprio. U-shaped and open to the west, the castle’s main body was part of a larger fortified area that sources identify as a ricetto. Within the ricetto were vegetable gardens and large empty plots besides cottages, cattle sheds and furnaces. No longer extant, but testified in an 18th century canvas, the so-called as

the Biscione tower flanked the main edifice. The latter contained, as mentioned earlier, the «fodder garret,» the lords’ apartments and attached facilities, namely the kitchen and a location, called «the school,» probably the designated study room of the family’s many scions.

Little has remained of the original vast complex. Completely redone in the 19th century, the main edifice is now a private residence fashioned in a manner echoing the gothic style and located in a large park. Along via Santa Maria and via Vallazza it is still possible to observe the vestiges of the towers and edifices – one of which featuring a fine renaissance loggia – that developed along the northern and western battlements of the ricetto.

Also visible, walled on Santa Maria del Cerro’s bell tower, is a marble coat-of-arms bearing the insignia of the Viscontis.

105

FAGNANO OLONA CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Fagnano Olona (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact with rebuilding CURRENT USE: town hall

The 15th century courtyard of Fagnano Olona Castle

106

Protected by a moat, the castle is located just outside the town’s oldest part, towards which its main façade – the southern one – is turned to. Behind the castle there is Olona valley, which is overlooked by the northern side of the fortification, standing high over the river.

Presently venue of the city’s administrative council, the fortress – already recorded in a 13th century document – has been linked to the Viscontis since the 1300s as part of

the vast property the cadet branches of Visconti House owned in the Seprio. Towards the end of the century the property came into the hands of Gaspare Visconti, the powerful councillor of duke Filippo Maria, who handed it down to his son, Filippo Maria, named after the duke. A leading figure of the period, a frontline backer of Francesco Sforza at the time he came to power, Filippo Maria dedicated most of his efforts to the large fortress that was being developed at Fontaneto, in the area around Novara, starting 1450. Nevertheless, he did not neglect the castle at Fagnano, where he often stayed. It is likely the two towers still visible today were constructed under Filippo Maria, to whom, it should be added, the apartments located in the oldest part of the site continued

FAGNANO OLONA

Nursing Madonna, 15th century. Fagnano Olona, castle, external façade

to be connected many years after he had died. According to a 1509 account, in the upper floor of the only courtyard existing at that time, there was a room, overlooking the Olona, which belonged «to the magnificent now deceased signor Filippo.» Attached to that room there were other chambers, the latrines, a chapel, halls, a study room, a «painted room» and, probably a ledge that ran around the courtyard. On the ground floor were located the kitchens, sables and other facilities. Guarding over the fortification were the two main towers, in one of which was chancery house. Four smaller torrexini, or smaller towers, that have not survived stood in the corners of the fortification.

Besieged during the wars that ravaged the dukedom in the initial decades of the 16th century, the castle was seriously damaged. It was

successively restored, in the second-half of the century, above all

by Gaspare Visconti, the archbishop of Milan, who ultimately came into possession of it. With the intention of reconverting it for residential use, the old structures were overlaid by new building blocks, overlooking the town, which have survived. The 15th century courtyard was thus preceded by a new courtyard, access to which is gained trough the baroque gate on piazza Cavour. At the back of the 16th century courtyard a gate with three openings leads to the oldest part of the castle, where clearly visible is a Visconti coat-of-arms bearing the letter F and M, the initials of Filippo Maria. Faint traces of the original decorations survive in several rooms inside, while the façade bears a bas-relief depicting a breastfeeding Madonna dating back to the 15th century.

107

CASTELBARCO VISCONTI CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Cislago (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Castelbarco Visconti STATE OF PRESERVATION: rebuilt CURRENT USE: private residence

Faรงade of Castelbarco Visconti Castle, Cislago

108

A village of strategic importance in the middle ages along the road connecting Milan to Varese, Como and Switzerland, Cislago was endowed with a castle from at least the 10th century. The locality is however mentioned more frequently in the 13th century, at the time of the strife between the aristocrats and people, and begins to be associated insistently to the name of the family that would define its fortunes in the successive centuries: the Visconti.

At the end of the 13th century, the castle came in the possession of the brother of the master of Milan Matteo Magno Uberto and his descendants. Along with the castle at Cislago, Uberto also received those located at Somma Lombardo and Agnadello. In early 15th century, Antonio Visconti, founder of the Somma branch of the Visconti, chose Cislago as his privileged residence. Successively shared by different owners in the period between the 15th and 16th centuries, the fortress was inherited in its entirety by Battista Visconti, known as the Comparino, steward in the court of Ludovico il Moro (1480-1499) as well as refined patron of arts. In 1510, the fortified compound was destroyed, like many other along the MilanVarese route, by Swiss troops.

CISLAGO

Dying around 1524 without direct descendants, Battista left the castle to his nephews Cesare and Alfonso, sons of his brother Tebaldo; from the former descended the Cislago Visconti, who held on to the castle until 1716. This line also died and the estate – which included the countdom of Gallarate – was passed down by marital heritage to the Castelbarco, a Trentobased aristocratic family, which has since been called the Castelbarco Visconti, and which in the 18th century transformed the castle into a refined cultural haunt. The descendants of this family are currently still the owners of the castle.

Built on an imperceptible rise bordering on the east with the Bozzente, a river that has been interred where the parish church square is now, Cislago Castle today appears as baroque palatial villa, featuring two merlon-lined towers made at a later date. The only echo of its manorial past are just these two 17th century towers, which alongside those at the castle of Frascarolo di Induno and the turrets in a wing of Somma Castle, which belonged in the 17th century to the Cislago Visconti, are a clear sign of the precocious revival of medieval themes in Lombardy.

Today still an annexe of the castle is the oratory – established in 1398

by Maffiolo Visconti and decorated at the beginning of the following century – was dedicated to St. Maria Assunta and to St. Martin, the knight saint who was so dear to the aristocracy of the time.

Courtyard front of the castle, Cislago Courtyard gate of the castle, Cislago 109

JERAGO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Jerago con Orago (Varese), locality of Jerago TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Bossi STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: private residence, events venue

Medieval documents relating to Jerago and its territory often mention a locality called mons sancti Jacobi, mount San Giacomo. The rise, which of course still exists today, is located a short distant away from the centre of town, in the direction of Besnate. It is at the top of this hillock that we find the Visconti castle of Jerago, preceded by the Romanic oratory of San Giacomo, from which the hill took its name.

Probably constructed on an existing defensive structure, since the second-half of the 13th century the fortress has been the property of a branch of the Visconti family Jerago Castle seen from northwest

110

which also held seigniorial rights over the village below and the surrounding lands. Closely tied to the other Viscontis that owned castles in the area between the 14th and 15th centuries, the Jerago Viscontis played a significant role in the dukedom, relying as they did on their wealth and prestige besides a wide network of relations. Key to the family’s fortunes were no doubt a number of well placed marriages. If by the 15th century this branch of Visconti House had lost some of its specific weight, a number of important marriages of some of its members with powerful figures in Milan contributed significantly to improve the family’s quotations.

In the early years of the century, Antonia married the famous count of Carmagnola, the most prominent among duke Filippo Maria Visconti’s aides. But even more importantly Elisabetta di Gasparino married, half-way into the century, Cicco Simonetta, the duke’s powerful secretary. Little liked in the upper circles of

JERAGO CON ORAGO

Milanese society because of his foreign origins, Cicco found in the marriage with a Visconti, albeit coming from a somewhat declining branch, the possibility to consolidate his connections in the circles that mattered. Azzone, too, brother of Elisabetta, was greatly advantaged by his sister’s marriage, making for himself a rapid career as a ducal magistrate. It was a marriage so crucial that when Cicco Simonetta fell from grace, Azzone’s fortunes and that of his family declined rapidly.

Azzone’s sons Bernabò and Gaspare Visconti divided the paternal estate in 1493, which, of course, included Jerago Castle.

The deed dividing the estate provides the earliest reliable information regarding the fortified complex. The buildings were arranged in a U-shaped layout, closed-off by a simple wall on the west. The deed makes no mention of towers nor of the large cottage strengthened by two turrets in the east that can be seen today from the main road. It is therefore very likely that this building block was made after the estate was divided in 1493, albeit not much later.

The castle has undergone recent

restoration works and is currently still in use. It has maintained its simple and sombre appearance, both externally and internally. Its exterior aspect is somewhat livened up by windows, merlons and machicolations, while the internal court has been gradually converted for residential use.

Above the courtyard gate there is an 18th century coat-of-arms belonging to the Bossi family, which came into possession of the castle and the feud at that time.

However, the Visconti coat-ofarms once again appear in the nearby oratory of San Giacomo, the visit of which completes the tour of the castle.

Internal courtyard at Jerago Castle, Jerago con Orago

The oratory of San Giacomo Always linked to the fortress to the extent that it was also known in the past as the «church of San Giacomo in castello,» the oratory was most likely Romanic in origin, probably dating back to the 12th century.

Inside are several frescos belonging to different periods, though some are in a poor state of conservation. Particularly interesting is the late-1300s fresco depicting a row of saints in the apse, surmounted by a Christ in mandor-

la and the symbols of the four evangelists.

The side walls bear a 15th century Madonna with Child that presents on the foreground a man in prayer, most likely a Visconti. The fresco bears a dedicatory inscription with a Visconti coat-of-arms. It is possible to decipher in it with difficulty the name Guidetus de Vicecomitibus, Guidetto of the deceased Azzone Visconti, joint lord of Jerago until the late 1430s.

111

ALBIZZATE CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Albizzate (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti STATE OF PRESERVATION: rebuilt CURRENT USE: private residence

The entrance tower: remnants of Albizzate Castle are visible at the back (right)

112

The fortress can be reached from piazza IV Novembre, the town’s main square, along via Roma and turning into via Castello. Past the 18th century gate, made to mitigate the grimness of the entrance into the fortified structure and buildings, visitors cross several minor courtyards – some of which are still inhabited – before entering the fortress proper. The castle’s original layout is still identifiable: a four-sided structure with corner towers facing the Arno valley on the east. Clearly visible atop the courtyard gate is a Visconti coat-of-arms, but little else remains of the ancient castle, which stayed with the Viscontis until the 13th century. Constantly transformed until the last century, the monumental edifice now appears as a large villa albeit in a state of great neglect.

Completely different, though, is

the oratory whose frescoes represent one the highest achievements of Lombardy 14th century painting. The small church is located on piazza IV Novembre, to the right of the parish church of Sant’Alessandro, therefore further away from the fortress than elsewhere – at Cislago or Jerago, for example – but nevertheless still quite close to the other buildings owned by the family in the piazza, such as the present day town hall. Built in the later half of the 14th century, the oratorio presents a rather bare façade, which as late as the 17th century was decorated with the figures of saints accompanied by Visconti insignia above the circular window. The church’s foundation was most certainly linked to a Visconti, most likely to one Pietro Visconti, although no definite documentary proof has yet emerged to confirm the longestablished tradition of the oratory’s establishment.

The frescoes too were commissioned by the Viscontis probably, as emerging from recent restorations, at a time not much later than 1385. The Visconti bisce, or snakes, again make their appearance, this time at the base of the back arch on the pendentives of which are the figures of prophets.

An impressive Christ Blessing, flanked by the symbols of the evangelists, can be admired on the apse basin. Below it, is a fresco with the twelve apostles, probably dating to the 15th century.

The lateral walls bear episodes of the life of the two saints to which the oratory is dedicated. Upon entering on the left, on the first frame at the top on the right side of the wall, are the episodes relating to John the Baptist, from the Apparition of the Archangel

ALBIZZATE

Gabriel before Zachariah to the events relating to his death and the miraculous finding of his remains. While on the wall on the right there are the Episodes from the life of St Louis of Toulouse, the son of Charles Anjou, king of Naples, who gave up all earthly possessions for the love of the poor and became a Franciscan.

The artists who made the frescos are unknown, although the presence of a number of frescanti, or fresco artists, of varying degrees of talent and culture is testified at the site. Recent studies suggest that Albizzate could rely on one

possibly two botteghe, or workshops with related masters, that developed differing styles, each entrusted with the task of drawing the lives of respectively St. John and St. Louis. For a long time abandoned, the oratorio, as can be read in alarmed reports from 1925, lay in a state of «destruction», reduced to «a granary, for the storing of mulberry leaves and hay.» Severely damaged in some parts by encroaching humidity, the frescoes have undergone extensive restoration, the last of which concluded in 2000.

Thievery in a church spat at the end of the 15th century Lombardy painter, Saint John Baptist appears miraculously before two monks, post 1385.

Albizzate, Visconti oratory

In medieval times, to build an oratory, as the one the Viscontis established at Albizza, and to ensure that mass was regularly officiated there, were two completely different issues. To make sure that a priest celebrated mass in a given church on a regular basis, it was necessary to link a “privilege” to said church, to constitute, that is, an estate that could generate enough resources to sustain the priest charged with officiating there. And this was exactly what was amiss with the oratory dedicated to the Baptist and to St. Louis of Toulouse, which in the course of a pastoral visit in 1455 was described as being of «no value», as having no attached endowment, and therefore lacking a chaplain who could celebrate mass on a regular basis. The shortcoming was addressed only in 1471 by Giovanni Aloisio and Franchino, two brothers of the Albizzate Viscontis

who transferred some of their possessions to the oratory so as to allow a priest to stay there and say mass for them, at “their” church. It didn’t take long before things got nasty between the “new” chaplain and the rector of the nearby parish church of Sant’Alessandro, whose position was suddenly being threatened by the arrival of a “dangerous competitor.” A vivid report of the bickering comes from a document signed by a number of Albizzate citizens before a notary in Gallarate. Convened to give an account of what had occurred the previous Christmas, the residents recalled that Pietro Vismara, the chaplain of the oratory, had celebrated mass before a large gathering of worshippers. During mass, the witnesses said, a large sum of alms money had been collected, which would have gone a long way to integrating the cleric’s income. However, as Pietro Vismara was still celebrating, priest Gaspare de Mirano, rector of the Sant’Alessandro parish church, rushed into the oratory and here, in front of all bystanders, «accepit oblationem pecunie»; he swiped, in other words, the alms money collected by his “rival”.

113

CASTELLETTO CASTLE MUNICIPALITY: Castelletto sopra Ticino (Novara) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with rebuilding CURRENT USE: private residence

Faรงade of Castelletto Castle

114

Not distant from the urban settlement, in a dominating position over the river Ticino, Casteletto Castle is today one of the best preserved among the many in the area between Milan and lake Maggiore that towards the end of

the Middle Ages belonged to the Viscontis.

The fortress, nevertheless, predates the Visconti acquisition. At the time it was first recorded in 1145, the fortress belonged to the da Castello, one of the most powerful families of the Novara region. The earliest recorded, and uncertain, instance of a Visconti presence here dates to a century later. In particular, 1236 papers suggest that Ottone Visconti, already lord of Massino, in the Vergante, claimed some interest on the castle. It would also appear that by the end o the century, one Uberto Visconti was

CASTELLETTO SOPRA TICINO

residing in the fortress, from where he exercised an undefined «dominion» over the village.

Connected to a brother of Matteo Visconti, lord of Milan at the beginning of the 14th century, the figure of Uberto is probably better identifiable with that of Uberto son of Ruggero, nephew of that same Ottone Visconti mentioned in 1236 in a document relating to Castelletto. Though doubts remain due to a paucity of documentation, it is essentially correct to identify in Uberto the founder of the Castelletto Visconti branch. The family’s status as feudal lords of Casteletto was ultimately confirmed by a 1329 imperial diploma, but not before the castle and lands had been occupied by their rivals, the Della Torre, at the beginning of the century. Their wealth coming from the duties levied on all trade transiting along river Ticino – a privilege that was by far the most remunerative in connection with the control of Castelletto – the Castelletto Viscontis reached their maximum splendour in the early part of the 15th century, at the time of Alberto, grandson of Uberto and his sons Lancillotto and Ermes. The feud of Castelletto came to include, at that time, the neighbouring towns of Sesto Calende, Angera, Lisanza, Borgo Ticino, Pombia, Varallo Pombia, Invorio Superiore, Paruzzaro, thereby constituting a compact dominion in the lower Verbano that was linked to the feud of Ornavasso, which lay even further away.

The successive were decades of declining fortunes for the family, which lost important lands and were weakened by the competition coming from other Visconti branches and other feudal fami-

lies, chief among which the Borromeo. Another factor of their decline was also the division of estates and jurisdictions involving initially the brothers Ermes and Lancillotto and, successively, their numerous sons. One such division involved the castle itself. The deed that sanctioned the partition in 1416 provides clear information as to the castle’s layout: the four-sided structure, dominated by corner towers, that can be admired today.

Extensively restructured in the following centuries, especially on the western side, with a view of a reconversion to residential use, the castle remained under the Viscontis until early 1900s, and continues to be a private property to this day.

Bonifacio Bembo, Il Mondo (denari suit), Visconti Tarots, 1445 ca, detail. New Haven, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. The Castelletto Visconti owed their fortune to the collection of duties on trade along the Ticino

115

ROCCA BORROMEO

MUNICIPALITY: Angera (Varese) TYPOLOGY: stronghold, princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Borromeo STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Doll and Toy Museum

Where the southern basin of lake Verbano narrows to form its last pocket, there rises, on a rosy spur of Dolomite stone, the fortress of Angera.

A strategic town already in Roman times – it was called Stazzona all the way until the end of the 12th century – Angera continued to View of Borromeo Castle at Angera

116

play a significant role in medieval times within the lake’s trade system and in the protection of the communication routes between the alps and the plains. As little documentation is available, it is very difficult to pinpoint a precise date for the construction of the original nucleus of the castle, or when the fortress became a possession of the bishopric of Milan. If by the 10th century the nearby strongholds of Travaglia and Brebbia had been taken over by the bishopric, the first time ever Angera is mentioned, in 1066, it was held by a woman, Oliva, the granddaughter of Guido da Velate, the archbishop of Milan.

While it is impossible to establish if Guido was the first among the

ANGERA

Milan prelates to have come into possession of the castle, his successors at the Desk of St. Ambrose held on to the stronghold for the next three centuries, assigning to it a strategic role among the fortifications in their control. Towards the end of the 13th century, the fortress became the refuge for archbishop Leone da Perego, the head of the Milanese aristocratic faction who had been forced several times to flee Milan, which had all but fallen in the hands of the Della Torre.

The Visconti emerged victorious from the civil strife and a new phase began for the stronghold, which soon became property – like many other possessions of the bishopric – of the new masters of Milan. Considered as the mythical birthplace of the family lineage, the castle was embellished by magnificent frescos depicting the victorious march of the founder of Visconti House against the Della Torre, his arch enemies. For a long time without any legal basis, the transfer of Angera and the castle to the Viscontis received the official stamp only in 1384 when the antipope at Avignon Clement VII ceded the castle to Caterina Visconti, daughter of Bernabò and wife of Gian Galeazzo. A 1397 imperial diploma then elevated Angera to the status of county assigning it as a privilege of the lords of Milan. But the turmoil triggered in Milan by the death in 1402 of Gian Galeazzo led to a steady erosion of ducal power in the lake town. The first to fill in the void was Gaspare Visconti son of Uberto, powerful count from nearby Arona and distant cousin of the dukes, who was granted seigniorial rights over the town and possibly also the castle. In 1439, duke Filippo Maria, also with a view to breaking the stran-

glehold of Gaspare’s descendants of the lower Verbano, ceded Arona to his treasurer Vitaliano Borromeo, who came from a very wealthy family of merchants and bankers from Padova and Tuscany.

And ten years later, in 1449, the new count of Arona succeeded in purchasing for 12,800 Liras the jurisdiction of Angera, which from that moment became an integral part of the little “state” the Borromeos progressively built around lake Maggiore. Starting from mid15th century – with the exception of a brief spell when Angera returned under ducal rule (1497) – the castle became a property of the Borromeos, who are still its owners to this day.

The profile of the fortress stands out, unmistakably, from the hills of Varese, from the Vergante and from the southern part of lake Maggiore. At the back of town, a narrow road leads up to the top of the hill defended, on its gentler slopes, by a fortified curtain wall.

Master of Angera, Ottone Visconti captures Napo Della Torre, 1280 ca, detail.

Angera, Rocca Borromeo, Justice Hall

117

The Castle wall, Angera. The tower is visible at the back

118

Immediately visible from the parking lot at the top of the climb is the large tower – in Angera stone with Guelf merlons and a covering in tiles made successively – that forms the nucleus of the fortress. It used to rise, solitary, on the higher part of the hill, flanked by a smaller ancient tower, the ruins of which can be seen while climbing towards the current entrance: a large stonewall, which now closes-off the side erroneously defined as the “scaligera” wing, framed by square blocks placed on the sides and featuring a piled single arch window.

Past the first turret – where the ticket office is located – and along the high wall that defines the internal courtyard to the east, the path leads to the crooked entrance tower, which is the outcome of the collapse of a larger and lower 13th century structure that when its eastern part caved in was reconstructed following the profile of the hill. A pointed arch with

portcullis and gate leads into the first court-terrace overlooking on the south to the lake and the town below. Opposite the entrance there rises the elegant tower built by the archbishop and lord of Milan Giovanni Visconti (1339-1354) in mid14th century, while below it is located the entrance to the garden and castle church of San Bartolomeo. A wing constructed at the beginning of the 14th century to delimit the internal courtyard closes-off the space in the north. Halfway into the same century, a floor was added to the wing, which was linked to Giovanni’s castle and reshaped around 1550 with the current layout consisting of lintel openings which replaced the original arch windows and provided light for the representative halls of the Borromeos.

A second pointed arch gateway leads to the internal courtyard characterised by a significant height difference and an elbowshaped ramp. Overlooking the latter, from right to left, are: the low facilities edifice leaning against the eastern wall containing the winepress; the “scaligera” wing (the most compromised) opposite the entrance; the master tower (at the corner) with the adjacent wing made by Ottone in square blocks of Angera stone; the 16th century Borromeo gate with its fine portico also in rosy local stone.

In the courtyard, the “scaligera” is the oldest wing, constructed in the 1250s between the two oldest towers and most likely the remains of a building that had been made under Leone da Perego. The overlaid openings make it difficult to picture the original layout of the wing that for years was used as a cottage and neglected by the Borromeos, who resided in the wing facing the lake. The original edifice

ANGERA

probably developed on three floors (basement included) and featured an uninterrupted series of mullioned windows with two lights on the first floor and possibly a gangway that was accessed from an external stairway. Work, started around 1370 to restructure especially the wing’s interiors, included the addition of the emblems of Bernabò Visconti and Regina della Scala, after whom the wing is named. Only at a successive time was the wing joined to the master tower by means of a water tank.

As for the ottoniana wing, named after bishop Ottone, it was probably constructed towards the end of the 13th century. A true masterpiece of residential architecture of the 13th century, entirely in local stone polished and hewn in blocks, the wing features narrow singlelight splayed mullioned windows and very elegant two-light mullioned windows on the upper floor.

The edifice hosted at one time two environments: a vast ground floor hall featuring a central spine of octagonal columns that was divided in two and partly utilised as a

kitchen, and a vast upper salon with vaulted ceiling held up by acute arches and divided in two bays. The structure was leaned against the ancient keep thereby shutting the original access to the tower. Entrance to this upper hall was through an external staircase, now no longer extant, but which must have been pinned on the wall overlooking the courtyard.

The Borromeo wing, on the other hand, was constructed around 1550 and placed against the 14th century.

It served to close-off the central courtyard on the side of the lake.

The large arches of the portico bear the motto HUMILITAS and other family insignia. Here was constructed a large double ramp grand staircase, which is to this day used to access the master floor.

This addition allowed the Borromeos to create a new access to the hall, while giving them, at the same time, the possibility to rearrange the internal layout of the building. Portico, grand staircase, gallery above the portico, and hall overlooking the lake, correspond in terms of volumes and propor-

A stone for the dukedom The dolomite stone of the Angera promontory was much appreciated in the dukedom of Milan during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Good construction stone is hard to find in Lombardy, and it is for this reason that castles, especially ducal castles, were mostly made with low-quality stone or in brickwork. However, single decorative pieces in Milanese fortresses as well as local palazzos or country churches are in fine Angera stone, whose colour nuances range from

coarse white to pink and light yellow. If at Angera the entire block of the keep as well as the main tower is in Angera stone, a useful exercise would be to single out in the other castles of the dukedom the construction details – capitals, columns and even rows of arches and windows – that are made in this precious material.

The Visconti wing of Rocca Borromeo, Angera

119

The Visconti mystique: how to “invent” a past It was probably in the first two decades of the 14th century, as Matteo Magno was consolidating his grip on power, that an anonymous author wrote a text today known as Chronica Danielis de Comitibus Angleriae. That writer was contributing to establishing the legend of Angera-Stazzona as being a Roman town and of the counts of Angera as being the progenitors of kings and, therefore, of the Viscontis. Shortly after, Galvano Fiamma, the Milanese Dominican and chronicler, revivified the myth of the origins of Angera by going so far as to creating a parallel with the foundation of Rome. Indeed, the new city was established and the dynasty of counts founded by one Anglo, or Angelo, a Trojan and partner of Aeneas’ during his Italian perambulations. In 1397, strengthened by this mythological origin, the newly-installed duke obtained from the

emperor the title of count of Angera so that from that moment onwards the Visconti entitled themselves dukes of Milan, counts of Pavia and counts of Angera, taking efforts to transform the latter into the key town for the lake’s administrative system. Giorgio Merula and other Visconti historiographers, then, did the rest, pushing the story to its extreme consequences by claiming that Anglo was the son of Ascanius, who was the son Aeneas and brother of Julo, the founder of the imperial gens Julia… It was then a fait accompli and the Visconti-Sforzas had become the “grandchildren” of Roman Emperors and were thus elevated to an absolutely prominent rank among all the other Italian princely families. The attempt by Ludovico il Moro in 1497 to elevate the small lake village of Angera to the rank of city was but the last step in the creation of the Visconti mystique.

tions to the central spaces in typical Lombardy villas and buildings.

A tour of the fortress takes place in two specific parts. The ground floor and basement is completely occupied by the doll and toy museum, which gathers a huge and very interesting collection partly started in the family and successively enlarged by the many gifts presented to the young Borromeo princes, while the upper floor by the historical apartments.

If the fragments of the 15th century frescoes removed from palazzo Borromeo at Santa Maria Podone and placed in the castle’s 16th century halls suggest an atmosphere of courtly elegance, the rooms in Giovanni Visconti tower and in the Justice Hall allow visitors to take a leap back in history. Two rooms on the second floor of the tower have conserved traces of the original 120

14th century decorations, complete with the initials of the archbishop.

But what truly surprises is above all the hall in Ottone’s wing with its pictorial cycle depicting Ottone Visconti’s rise to power in Milan.

Access to the hall is up through the grand staircase and turning left.

Between the ribs of the vault is a continuous geometrical pattern of bright colours – ochre, red, blue and green – while the walls bear the frescos narrating the fortunate events of Ottone’s life. The work of an unknown artist – conventionally named the Master of Angera – the frescoes are of uncertain date, probably anytime between the end of the 13th century and the first two decades of the 14th century. The iconographic source of the paintings can probably be traced to Stefanardo of Vimercate, the Dominican friar who wrote an encomiastic

ANGERA

narrative of Ottone’s feats around the same time. On the wall on the right of the entrance, a central space was dedicated to a representation, which has not survived, of the Battle of Desio (21 January 1277), the event that marked the Viscontis’ victory over the Della Torres. The scenes of the events that took place after the fateful battle – on the entrance wall – are well conserved: the arrest and pardon of Napo Torriani; the imprisonment of the vanquished. On the left wall, articulated in various frames, are, finally, the images of Ottone’s solemn entrance in Milan. Always recognisable in all the scenes, the archbishop is shown as clement in victory, as a pacifier concerned more about the common weal than to maximising the advantages of his victorious “faction.” It should be observed, in this light, that Ottone is always shown unarmed.

Above the central strip bearing the Ottone narrative are the zodiacal signs, with related astrological house, arranged as a sort of crowning frieze. As for the entrance wall there are traces of two female figures: a lady sitting on a wheel that is grinding a man down and a woman enthroned dressed in regal white. They are arguably the allegorical representations of Fortune and Virtue, a clear indication that the fresco painter was interested not only in providing a visual account of events but also to include in the narrative the moralising conclusion of the encomiastic tale by Stefanardo da Vimercate where the poet sings a hymn to fluctuating fortune. What is being represented in this hall at Angera is, in fact, not only an event crucial to the history of the Visconti family – an event narrated elsewhere in the castle in a room that has not

survived with the portraits of illustrious family members – or the glorification of archbishop Ottone’s greatness, but also the casualness of events (as highlighted by the zodiacal signs) that mark the alternating fortunes of the great. For, where a Torriani is vanquished, a Visconti is vanquisher, but who can tell that the opposite may not also occur, sooner or later?

A visit to Angera Castle should include the climb up the staircase leading from Justice Hall to the master tower. As you climb new and old stairs, from the tower rooms and terraces, through gothic-like windows and splayed loopholes, the view over the lake, the hills of Varese, the course of the Ticino and the Alps is simply breathtaking.

Justice Hall at Rocca Borromeo, Angera

121

VISCONTI TOWER

VISCONTI CASTLE MUNICIPALITY: Invorio (Novara) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Visconti d’Aragona, Ferrari Ardicini STATE OF PRESERVATION: historical remnants while the tower is partially intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice (private property)

122

The first recorded instance of a fortification at Invorio goes back to the 11th century, more or less the same time a castle is mentioned on the hill at Invorio Superiore. This latter castle, probably the oldest among the two, did not last much longer, for by the 12th century its fortunes were declining. Located where the Madonna di Castello sanctuary now stands, the Invorio Superiore castle as well as the fortification at Invorio both belonged to the counts of Biandrate at the beginning of the 12th century.

After having early on ceded the Invorio Superiore castle to the abbey of Cluny (prior to 1184), the counts of Biandrate focused their attention on Invorio Inferiore. Due to its strategic position, the castle was soon attracting the attention of Novara, which was at that time setting its sights on the Verbano and the area around lake d’Orta, and was exerting its influence on the village. The attempt on the part of the counts of Biandrate to retake the castle failed so that they were forced to negotiate terms, finally relinquishing the fortification in favour of Novara sometime between 1223 and 1232. In the agreements that were signed at the time there emerged, for the first time, the presence of a relationship, from the male side, with the Viscontis. Novara thus respected the Viscontis’ claims at Invorio and Vergante where they had been vassals of the counts of Biandrate since quite a while.

Between 1356 and 1358, the Invorio Inferiore castle was seriously damaged in the clashes that took place between the Visconti and the marquis of Monferrato but was, nevertheless, not abandoned. The fortification continued to afford protection to many members of the Visconti family, many of whom were living here, more or less, sta-

Entrance to the tower bearing a Visconti coat-ofarms, Invorio

bly. Several branches of the family, some of which owners of other castles and fiefs, were by this time exercising their rights albeit without any specific legal basis. Among these Viscontis there were the masters of Castelletto Ticino, the brothers Lancillotto and Ermes, who obtained in 1413 from the dukes of Milan legitimate seigniorial rights over Invorio Superiore, a fiefdom that included Ornavasso, Borgo Ticino, Varallo Pombia and Pombia di Vergante. The brothers, as well as other relatives, continued to informally exercise their rights over Invorio Inferiore, Paruzzaro, Oleggio Castello, Montrignasco, Castelletto Ticino and Lisanza.

In the 15th century, a famous resident at Invorio Inferiore was, in fact, a Castelletto Visconti: Alberto, eldest son of Lancillotto. Alberto was an educated man who suc-

cessfully pursued the profession of arms and fought for the king of Naples, for which he obtained the privilege of adding to his surname that of the Aragona. Though throughout the 15th century the dominions of the Visconti d’Aragona continued to be centred at Castelletto Ticino, Alberto and his descendants – as testified in a document dated 1510 – were entitled to a home in the fortified compound of Invorio. The residence was turned by the Viscontis, who mostly lived near the Sforza Castle, into a small court of country pleasures. Alberto’s sons, who were diehard Sforza backers, enjoyed but little the peace and quiet of Invorio. Anchise fought all phases of the war around Italy, while Ermes Costanzo paid his antiFrench positions with his life, decapitated in 1519.

123

INVORIO

View of the Visconti tower at Invorio

The Invorio friezes: portraits of Visconti and Sforza dukes Milanese painter, The dukes of Milan Francesco and Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 1495 ca. Verbania Pallanza, Museo del Paesaggio

courts at Vigevano or Milan during the last decade of the 15th century. It is quite likely the work was commissioned by the Visconti family, most probably by Alberto and his sons. It may even be possible that also the portraits still conserved at Casa Rusca – from where the frieze was removed in 1919 – may relate to Alberto and his family. These family portraits contrasted with the official ones are perfectly in line with those – both real and fanciful – that decorate other friezes (consider, for example, the Botta cycle at Castelletto di Branduzzo) or ceilings.

The Museo del Paesaggio (Landscape Museum) of Verbania conserves what remains of the most important non-religious pictorial cycle of the Vergante region: the frieze with the portraits of the dukes of Milan taken from a loggia located in one of the Visconti homes at Invorio Inferiore. A faux entablature bear, against a red background, the portraits of Gian Galeazzo and Filippo Maria Visconti, followed by those of Francesco Sforza, Galeazzo Maria, Gian Galeazzo and Ludovico il Moro.

The medallions with the portraits of the dukes are held up by a plethora of monstrous creatures (centaurs, harpies, sirens) armed with bows, arrows, cornucopias and vielles. The frescos are of outstanding quality although in poor condition. The painter must have been aware of the artistic initiatives of the Sforza

124

INVORIO

Though the descendants of Ermes Costanzo kept Invorio, they elected Oleggio – the castle restructured in the neo-Gothic style in the 19th century – as their favourite feudal residence. In 1742, a Visconti d’Aragona, also named Alberto like the famous ancestor, was granted the title of marquis of Invorio, thereby concentrating on himself, by way of marriage and through the maternal line, the family’s undivided estate. In the 19th century, with the death of another Alberto Visconti d’Aragona in 1896 the agnate branch of the family became instinct, forever dispersing the possessions and castles that had belonged to the family for centuries.

Strolling in the historic centre of Invorio Inferiore it is still possible today to identify the area where the ancient fortification stood in the concentric layout formed by via Martinoli, via XX Settembre and via Curioni. These streets coast the top of a rise, presently a terraced garden, where at one time there was the castle. On top of the hill, surrounded by age old trees, there rises the 13th century stone tower. 17-metres-high and featuring square-shaped corner blocks, it is crowned by Ghibelline merlons, possibly made at a later date. The entrance to the keep is about four meters from the ground, featuring an opening framed by blocks of serizzo marble. Around the tower are traces of a courtyard, surrounded by fairly straightforward constructions, probably dating back to the 14th century. The courtyard gate bears a marble tondo – probably a romantic addition dating to the 19th century – that recalls the legendary detention at Invorio of Margherita Visconti Pusterla, the extremely beautiful daughter of a Visconti and bride of a Pusterla

who was involved by her husband in the plot against Luchino Visconti. At the foot of the hill there are a row of houses and a 17th century villa that mark the development of the Visconti property at the bottom of the fortress.

The entrance of what was once Villa Visconti d’Aragona is now located on via XX Settembre, 3, but the original gate to the castle was probably through the arch over via Martinoli, 18. Climbing up the steep road from piazza Matteotti – embellished by the presence of the ancient church of Santa Marta – it is possible to catch a view of the imposing building block, featuring the Visconti snake, over which soars the stone tower. The view offers what is just a pale shadow of the castle’s original might. At one time surrounded by a decorated ferrule bearing a marble coat-ofarms, the gate now leads into an unpretentious courtyard that has little to do with the back of the tower and the buildings located to the south of the castle, barring for several storm drains in the entrance hall. Nevertheless, it is possible to understand that the space between these buildings – a space now divided in four courtyards – must have constituted a single expanse surrounded by the buildings that can now only be accessed from vicolo Pusterla, the small alley from where it is possible to get a closer view of the castle and adjacent constructions. The house at the end of the alley and underneath the tower – today called Casa Rusca – bears, on the top floor, a frieze depicting ducal portraits and, on the ground floor, a cycle of clypeus portraits as well as traces of decorations, namely coatof-arms with snakes, purple pavilions and a “talking” buffoon guarding the entrance.

125

THE VISCONTI DI SAN VITO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Massino Visconti (Novara) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Visconti di Massino, Visconti d’Aragona, Palestrini, Chiossi, Visconti di San Vito STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with rebuilding CURRENT USE: monumental edifice (private property), events venue

The central tower of Massino Visconti castle

126

In the heart of the Vergante, on a crag that slopes towards lake Maggiore, there lies one of the Viscontis’ oldest possessions, the town of Massino. The town dominates the port of Lesa, commanding a view that sweeps across the Lombardy lake coast: the strongholds of Arona, Angera, Lisanza, Brebbia, Besozzo Castle, Orino Castle and the ancient fortress of Santa Maria del Monte, above Varese.

The first recorded instance of the

existence of a local fortified curtis goes back halfway into the 9th century when Massino became a privilege of queen Angelberga, wife of Louis II. The town was then donated to the monastery of San Sisto in Piacenza, and successively to the monastery of St. Gall (by the bishop of Vercelli), to which the lake curtis linked its fortunes in the course of the 19th century. The first time ever Massino is mentioned in relation with the Viscontis is 1134, when a Guido Visconti, son of Ottone, received from the monks of St. Gall the investiture of feudal rights over the village – rights which where confirmed by Emperor Conrad III shortly after.

The fortification around Massino at that time must have been limited to the parish church of San Michele probably on a rise to the south of the village where a castle was built shortly after. It is likely that this fortress was destroyed in 1358 by none other than Galeazzo II Visconti (1354-1378), the duke of Milan, who then left it for the other members of the family to build another castle, this time at the foot of the church.

Initially managed jointly – as occurring at Invorio – by the male relatives of the Visconti family, the castle was definitely handed over in the 16th century to the Massino Visconti, who held on to it until the 19th century when the property changed hands several times before returning to once again to the Viscontis almost as if the family exercised un unwritten option over the castle, considered as the family’s birthplace. The Visconti d’Aragona branch inherited the castle in 1823, when the Massino lineage became extinct.

Resold some forty years later by the last of the Visconti d’Arago-

MASSINO VISCONTI

na, the property came back, after several ownership changes, to the Visconti di San Vito, the branch of the family residing at Somma Lombardo, where part of the fittings as well as the archives of the Visconti d’Aragona kept at Massino were transferred to.

On arriving at Massino Visconti, after having pulled out from the highway at Meina and crossed the towns of Pisano and Nebbiuno and necessarily passed via Vittorio Emanuele, the castle rises in ahead, an imposing mass of stones. An ample wooded stairway divides and provides access to the castle and the church Santa Maria. By the latter, is a row of Visconti marble slabs placed on the northern wall, while the St Agnes chapel – a saint that was a favourite among the Viscontis – keeps an interesting cycle of frescoes most likely commissioned by the family in the very early part of the 16 th century. Three towers have survived: two on the sides of the southern gate, probably the original entrance surmounted by the usual Visconti biscione in Angera stone. The keep was most likely within the central tower of the fortification, which however bears the date of 1555). The residential complex is U-shaped with a terraced courtyard facing town.

This is the side from which just out the parlera a small loggia from where official announcements were read out. Access to the internal courtyard is gained through a gothic archway and vast entrance hall richly painted in the 17th century by an uninterrupted row of heraldic decorations, the most outstanding among which are the Visconti vipers curled around the masts of the sailboats on the Verbano. The long building block that overlooks the terraced

garden conserves traces of openings featuring brick arches in the gothic style. The castle’s stone walls – similar to those at Orino, Lisanza, Invorio and partly at Angera, but also recurrent in the castles of Vogogna, Locarno and Bellinzona – as well as the overall aspect of the houses in the village bring to mind alpine architecture as can be found, for example, at Ossolana and Ticinese. There are houses, in the town quarter at the foot of the castle and church, featuring capitals bearing the Visconti emblem.

Decorative friezes, 17th century. Massino Visconti, Visconti di San Vito Castle, entrance hall The castle’s terraced garden, Massino Visconti

127

CASTLE TRAIL 5

At the dukedom’s borders Between the castle and the town of Bellinzona BELLINZONA

Confederate troops besiege Bellinzona in December 1478, in Cronaca lucernese by Diebold Schilling the Younger, 1513. Lucerne, Korporationsgemeinde der Stadt Luzern

Bellinzona has three castles, which have been declared world heritage sites alongside the town’s entire defensive system. To the west, atop of a rocky spur soaring above the plain, there is the stronghold of Castelgrande, from which departs the long wall that slopes down to the Ticino. Proceeding further east there lies Montebello Castle, while higher up there is Sasso Corbaro Castle. Between Castelgrande and Montebello, the medieval town of Bellinzona develops within walls that are joined to the two castles to form a single fortified line acting as a barrier against those marching in a north-south direction.

The impression generated today by the sight of this outstanding fortified system is awing but it is probably not very different from the feelings that Castelgrande provoked to those who stood before it in the past. As early as the 13th century, in fact, Milanese consuls were already talking about a «fortress so excellently defended by nature and man that it cannot in anyway be taken.» Developed starting from the 13th century around Castelgrande, the entire defensive system at the time Bellinzona passed under the Cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (1500) looked very much as it does today, thanks above all to the constructions carried out when the town was ruled by the Dukedom of Milan. Bellinzona was taken by Milan in 1340. The lords of Milan were perfectly aware of the town’s highly strategic location, controlling the routes of communication between the Po plain and northern Europe that hinged on the San Bernardino, Gottardo, Lucomagno, Novena alpine passes. It was for this reason that the dukes insisted greatly on the town’s fortifications, which by the second-half of the 15th century, thanks to the intensive construction work that was carried out, had become a barrier against growing Swiss ambitions and restlessness.

Besides playing an essential role in transforming the settlement into a military site, Bellinzona’s key location also led to the development of a busy marketplace, where manufacturing and trade flourished, home to some of the wealthiest merchant families of the time. Either as private clients or as exponents of the local community, the members of this flourishing society commissioned art traces of which are visible in buildings and churches in the town’s buildings and churches. A visit to the Bellinzona of the ducal period is therefore an occasion to admire not only a defensive system among the most unique in Europe, but also a chance to witness firsthand the artistic style and taste that developed in a town on the dukedom’s edge.

After having parked the car in one of the lots created just outside the city centre, a good starting point for a tour of the city is, without doubt, piazza Indipendenza, formerly named piazza San Rocco after the 129

AT THE DUKEDOM’S BORDERS

church dedicated to the same saint that still stands on the square. (The frescoes on the façade are of the 20th century). A stroll around the piazza will allow visitors to see on the left and right of via Camminata, the street that leads to the square, sections of the town walls that right here at piazza Indipendenza featured porta Lugano, the town gate that did not survive. Already existing in the 14th century, the walls rose around the central nucleus of the town and were connected, as can still be seen today, to the west with Castelgrande and to the east with Montebello.

Between 1475 and 1480, the dukes ordered works aimed at raising and strengthening towers and walls with a view to making them more suitable to the use of firearms. It was also at this time that work went ahead on the construction of the porta Lugano ravelin, which can be seen in old prints of the town.

Past the ancient site of the gate and down via Camminata, visitors are in the heart of town – along these streets were, already in late medieval times, the residences of the town’s wealthiest families, the handcrafts shops, the notaries’ bureaux and the inns and public houses, which were of vital importance, and also very remunerative, in places of transit. It was no coincidence that further ahead down this central thoroughfare, by piazza Nosetto, stood Palazzo del Comune, the Town Hall, where the town coun-

Bellinzona’s earliest image

Bellinzona, in Cronaca di Berna by Benedikt Tschachtlan, 1470. Zurich, Zentralbibliothek

130

Given by Francesco Sforza the task of inspecting in 1457 Bellinzona’s fortified defences, Ermanno Zono, a relative of the ducal family, discharged his duties to the full, zealously informing the duke even as how many merlons were present on the town’s wall at that time, «four hundred and ninety eight» to be precise. The Notula et descriptione dele parte de Berinzona that he drafted did not come unaccompanied because it also contained a drawing of the fortifications of Bellinzona made by an expert chosen from the local community. While all traces of the first ever drawing of the fortifications of Bellinzona have been lost, we do know the name of the artist local councillors believed would have been able to execute this delicate task: Cristoforo da Seregno, whom they had already chosen to decorate the Town Hall and whom they would successively call to paint the cycle of frescoes at the parish church.

CASTLE TRAIL 5

131

AT THE DUKEDOM’S BORDERS

Hans Walter Imhof, The city of Bellinzona, 1630, detail with the southern quarters

cil met, justice was administered and ducal officials had their offices.

The Town Hall, which now survives in its 20th century garb, was most likely constructed during the second-half of the 14th century in place of the older municipal house that stood further south, in via Camminata. A contemporary account describes the new Town Hall as a building having a central courtyard with porticos, cellars, a gaol, stables, servants' quarters, a large hall, a kitchen and a room reserved for councillors, providentially endowed with a fireplace. Under the external portico, which at that time was already overlooking piazza Nosetto, were a row of rooms that around 1430 the commune leased to local notaries or shopkeepers, making sure that no unhygienic activity was conducted there, namely butchers or blacksmiths. At the end of the 15th century, a bell tower was constructed next to the Town Hall complete with clock, while in 1455 the Lugano painter Cristoforo da Seregno was entrusted with the task of decorating the internal portico ceiling with the coat-of-arms of Bellinzona (no longer extant) as well as those of the then podestĂ and of duke Francesco Sforza (1450-1466).

132

CASTLE TRAIL 5

Baldo Carugo, Piazza Nosetto towards the end of the 15th century, 1925. Bellinzona, Town Hall

The same artist Cristoforo da Seregno – once again commissioned by the Bellinzona commune – painted in 1469 an important cycle of frescoes in the parish church dedicated to SS Peter and Stephen, which is located further north along via Nosetto. Emerging as the town’s principal place of worship in the 15th century in lieu of the old country church located within the walls of Castelgrande, the church building that is visible today is the outcome of a large-scale work ordered by the community in 1515 which saw the involvement of one of the most prominent architects of the time, Tommaso Rodari, the chief architect of the Duomo of Como as well as master of the bottega, or workshop, that most likely made the fine side portals that have survived. The previous array of building structures and decorations did not survive the 16th century rebuilding. Of the frescoes made by Cristoforo da Seregno’s bottega nothing has survived, and the splendid stoup placed at the beginning of the nave is all that remains of the church’s 15th century origin. The object, in Candoglia marble, was made around the sixth decade of the century and documents show it was placed in its present location since 1543. Nevertheless, it is likely the stoup was made for a completely different setting. It has been suggested, in fact, that it was utilised as a fountain in the ducal residence at Vigevano as testified by the many achievements of the dukes that are etched on the marble. Though details are sketchy, it would appear the stoup was moved

by Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, master of the Mesolcina and from 1499 also marquis of Vigevano.

Leaving behind the Rodari portals of the parish church and proceeding along the enchanting via Codeborgo, visitors reach piazza del Sole. While the old gate along the town walls that opened to the north has not survived, it is possible to observe traces of the northern section of the same walls, dominated by the profile of Castelgrande and its tower, the Bianca. At this point, the climb up to the castle takes a few minutes – the Salita di San Michele is at nearby via Codeborgo – or just a few seconds for those opting for the lifts that were built in the course of the latest wave

133

AT THE DUKEDOM’S BORDERS

Bottega of the Scotti (?), Crucifixion, 1513-1515 ca, detail. Bellinzona, Santa Maria delle Grazie

of restoration work and placed in the vicinity of piazza del Sole. As for the castle itself, noteworthy is the outstanding collection of over 200 tempera maps kept at the museum and dating back to the 1470s. Originating from the ceilings of old palazzo Ghiringhelli, the maps give an indication of just how much the artistic style had changed with respect to the dominating canon of the time in Bellinzona.

The descent from Castelgrande to via Codeborgo is smooth and recommended for the view of the parish church and the southern flank of Bellinzona’s oldest fortress. Back to the town’s main thoroughfare, precisely to piazza Indipendenza, and without resisting the allure of exploring the side streets, southbound via Lugano leads to the area occupied by the churches of San Biagio and Santa Maria delle Grazie. San Biagio, the oldest among the two churches, keeps several elegant 14th century frescoes – the St. Christopher and the lunette with Madonna with Child in the façade, the decoration in the apse and in part of the internal southern wall – as well as early and full 15th century additions, including a number of devotional frescoes most likely commissioned by influential local families to the workshop of Cristoforo and Nicolao da Seregno. On the left wall there is the outstanding altarpiece, bearing the Madonna with Child among SS Blaise and Jerome made by Domenico Pezzi in 1520. The setting is significantly different at Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church founded alongside the attached convent of Franciscans, which was constructed in 1480 and consecrated in 1505. Here, the late gothic style frescoes at San Biagio – so near physically yet a few decades removed – have made way to art bearing the imprint of “hands belonging to the Renaissance,” the hands of an unknown master, probably from the Milanese milieu, who made, starting 1510, the unfinished Annunciation on the arch and the frescoes in the San Bernardino chapel. There are also frescoes by the Scottis who painted, around 1513, Histories from the life and passion of the Christ on the partition wall dividing the areas reserved for the worshippers and the friars. A key role was no doubt played by the clients – in 134

CASTLE TRAIL 5

this case the Franciscans – who often acted as the disseminators of artistic novelty. Deliberations of the municipal council show that many had given contributions and donations for the painting on the partition wall, a sign that the new in art was much appreciated by the descendants of those who had entrusted in 1469 Cristoforo da Seregno with the task of decorating the parish church.

After having finished visiting Santa Maria delle Grazie and back in the car, it is time to visit the remaining castles at Bellinzona, the road signs to which are well disseminated in the city centre. It is probably best to begin with Sasso Corbaro – the highest among the city’s strongholds and from where the view of the surrounding mountains and plains is breathtaking – before climbing down to Montebello. A brief detour, though, to the church of San Paolo di Arbedo is highly recommended. Take via San Gottardo in the direction opposite the city centre and follow the sign to località Carmagnola and it is possible to take a leap back to the Seregno of the 1450s. Here at the church Cristoforo and Nicolao da Seregno painted a fresco of The Last Supper around the fifties and sixties of the 15th century. While frescoes made successively have been attributed to Antonio da Tradate, who probably also made the huge St. Paul that is on the façade. Those who are not in a rush, are also advised to make a stopover at Monte Carasso, on the road to Locarno and lake Maggiore, just across the Ticino from the Bellinzona city centre. Domenico Pezzi – the same who made the altarpiece at the San Biagio church – made the early 16th century frescoes that are still visible on the façade of the local church dedicated to SS Jerome and Bernardino, adjacent the old convent of the Agostinian sisters. As for the numerous frescoes kept at the San Bernardo church, they date back to the previous century and were probably made by artists belonging to the workshop of Cristoforo da Seregno.

Located higher up with respect to the town, the church can be easily reached with the trolley bus line for Mornera. And the highly scenic climb to and descend from San Bernardo can satisfactorily close this part of the journey.

Pelican, detail from Crucifixion, beginning of the 15th century.

Arbedo, San Paolo

135

136

Montebello Castle and Castelgrande, Bellinzona

Bellinzona

BELLINZONA

Castle trail 5

It was between the 11th and 12th centuries that Bellinzona literally started moving downwards from Castelgrande, the fairly isolated fortified settlement dating back to pre-Roman times, to the settlement below. At a time of strong population and economic growth, handicraftsmen, merchants and their families moved down to the town in the plains below, attracted by its favourable location. Houses were built alongside places of worship – namely the parish church – that before long took up the role and function previously reserved to buildings within the wall of Castelgrande. In these central phase of the middle ages, Bellinzona was ruled by the commune of Como, but already starting from the 1200s Milan had been setting its sights on the town and surrounds, well realising how strategic the town was in controlling the alpine passes. In 1340, Bellinzona finally became part of the dukedom of Milan although the dukes granted to it an ample autonomy. But in the turbulent years following the death of duca Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1402), the town fell to the Swiss for the first time. The Battle of Arbedo (1422), which marked Milan’s re-conquest, did not ease fears concerning Confederate ambitions over the town. Thus it was in those years that the dukes of Milan focused their attention on strengthening Bellinzona’ fortified defences.

The present-day aspect of the fortifications was defined in those years.

Yet when Milan fell under French domination, it was Bellinzona that swore allegiance to the Cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. And after a struggle lasting three years, that allegiance was officially endorsed

by Louis XII, the king of France as well a new duke of Milan. This event marked the beginning of the domination of the Three Cantons on the town, which would continue until the creation of the Canton of Ticino.

Swiss bailiffs thus replaced ducal officials, while the entire fortified system – designed to keep the Swiss out – suddenly lost its strategic importance and was thus left in a state of neglect until restoration work started in the 19th century.

Baldo Carugo, View of Bellinzona in the 16th century, 1925. Bellinzona, Town Hall

137

CASTELGRANDE

MUNICIPALITY: Bellinzona (Canton Ticino) TYPOLOGY: fortress LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue Museo Storico Artistico, of Museo Storico Archeologico, and exhibition venue

Aerial shot of Castelgrande, Bellinzona

138

High up between the Ticino and the historic centre, Castelgrande hill is the site of the most ancient human settlement in the area of Bellinzona. On top of the rise, artefacts belonging to the Neolithic, as well as other traces from the bronze and iron ages, have been found, and are now kept at the castle’s archaeological museum. Digs carried out in the 1960s also brought to light ample evidence of the presence of the Roman troops deployed for the conquest of

Rhaetia (1st century BC). The first permanent fortification was built in the 3rd century, probably along where the walls are today. Never abandoned, the fort in medieval times provided protection within its walls to a host of constructions: towers, private homes, the San Pietro country church with attached burial ground. The surviving 13th century Bianca tower was part of a building belonging to the bishop of Como, while the nearby Black tower was probably constructed in the early part of the 14th century. The rather bare aspect of the three main courtyard is probably due to the interventions carried out in the Visconti-Sforza age and, above all, to the militarisation of the fortified compound in the 15th century, with space being created for the cantonment, if required, of large number of troops. It was during this time that the castle’s walls were raised and lengthened, two new towers built and the existing

BELLINZONA The Murata and Castelgrande with the Black tower and, on the background, the White tower

ones – the White and the Black – restructured. Access to the fortification was gained through a gate still visible in the wall that, southbound, linked Castelgrande to the defences of the city below.

Visitors can still walk up to the castle from various points of the city, although the easiest way up is by the lifts on piazza Della Valle, which take you up into the heart of Castelgrande. Access is through the southern gate, dominated by the slim profile of Bianca tower and by the bulkier one of Nera tower. Looking east, the gaze embraces the town’s southern walls as well as Montebello Castle and the stronghold of Sasso Corbaro, further away. The courtyard is closed off in the south on the side opposite the two towers by a complex of buildings that, following recent restorations, now host

the archaeological and art museums. The visit then proceeds to the western and southern courtyards.

A trapezoid structure outwork links the former to the long wall that heads out from Castelgrande towards the Ticino. Commissioned

by Ludovico il Moro (1480-1499) in the 1480s to ensure the total closure of the Bellinzona basin, the monumental work lies over the pre-existing defensive wall, sloping downwards from the castle to the river, which proved to be inadequate to resist against the onslaught of the Swiss in 1478. Of that work ordered by the Moro, little remains with the exception of the significant sections closest to Castelgrande that can be crossed on the upper wall-walk and on the lower covered one that offered protection against crossbows, hackbuts and small artillery.

139

MONTEBELLO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Bellinzona (Canton Ticino) TYPOLOGY: fortress LINEAGE: Rusca, Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of Museo Civico Archeologico

Aerial shot of Montebello Castle, Bellinzona A segment of the wall and the towers of Montebello castle, Bellinzona 140

Opposite Castelgrande, on the foot of the hill that rises east of Bellinzona, there is Montebello Castle. Also linked to the town’s walls, Montebello was established, just before the 1300, by members of the Rusca, a powerful clan from Como but well established in the areas around lake Lario and upper lake Maggiore and, starting from the beginning of the 14th century, also at Bellinzona. Of this period is the central nucleus of the fortress, dominated by a quadrangular keep, whose original aspect was most likely very different from the actual one, which was the outcome of restorations carried out in the early 1900s. Around this initial gauge, a second one was built halfway into the 14th century that, most likely already linked to the town walls, was successively the object of extensive restructuring. It was during the 15th century – and especially between 1462 and 1490 – that the fortified compound, by that time a ducal fortress, took the shape that is largely recognisable today. The external most wall was strengthened and better defended with the construction of auxiliary towers. While the ravelin, which now serves as the castle’s main entrance, was built towards the end of the century as an outwork protecting the eastern gate.

Past the ravelin courtyard, and through a gate that is part of a quadrangular tower, visitors enter the internal courtyard, enclosed by 14th and 15th century walls, from where the oldest part of the castle can be seen. On the wall-walks it is possible gain a bird’s eye view of Bellinzona besides a full picture of Montebello, complete with the long walls that slope steeply from the castle to the oldest section of Bellinzona.

BELLINZONA

The ravelin and on the background the towers of Montebello Castle’s keep, Bellinzona

141

SASSO CORBARO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Bellinzona (Canton Ticino) TYPOLOGY: fortress LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, museum and exhibition centre

The eastern most as well as the highest among the three city castles, it enjoys the most beautiful view of the plains and the strongholds of Montebello and Castelgrande below. Isolated and not connected with the rest of the defensive system, the stronghold of

Aerial shot of Sasso Corbaro Castle, Bellinzona

142

Sasso Corbaro was established in the 15th century as part of the initiatives carried out by the dukes of Milan to strengthen the fortified defences of Bellinzona. On the site where a pre-existing castle stood, ducal engineers constructed, starting 1478, the keep, occupying the northeastern corner of the castle, that was completed soon after.

Restored various times in the 20th century, the castle – a square of some 25 m per side – offers a splendid view of the keep, while in the opposite side visitors can see a slimmer watchtower. Within the courtyard there are a recently restored chaplet and a series of rooms most of which are now used also for hospitality purposes.

BELLINZONA

The ceiling at Ghiringhelli House Wooden tables of the ceiling of Ghiringhelli House, 1470 ca. Bellinzona, Museo Storico Artistico of Castelgrande

Real and fanciful animals; the virtues; famous knights and men from ancient times; scenes from a world turned upside down.

These are just some of the subjects represented in over 200 truly outstanding painted maps kept at Castelgrande’s Museo Storico Artistico. Dating back to the 1470s, featuring an agile brushstroke with lively colours and thick black contours, the drawings were made by an unknown artist – an artist very different from Cristoforo da Seregno, whose pictorial style dominated most of the works commissioned at that time in Bellinzona. The drawings were originally located in Albergo della Cerva, formerly palazzo Ghiringhelli, just behind the parish church, which was demolished in 1970. And to be more precise, the maps were on a ceiling of the old palace mounted on wooden tablets, and had been ordered in connection with the matrimony between a Ghiringhelli (most likely, the rich merchant Giovanni) and a Muggiasca,

another influential Bellinzona family of the time. This explains the recurrence of the coat-of-arms of the artwork’s complex iconography. For example, the presence of the illustrious founders of glorious lineages – Romulus and Remus or Peleus father of Achilles – served as a good omen for the matrimony’s fecundity. Or, the face-to-face portraits of famous couples, among whom, it should be noticed, the dukes Francesco and Galeazzo Maria Sforza, accompanied by their wives. The newly married couple are also present: she is handing to him a pomegranate, sign of virility and fecundity. But besides the pomegranate, we must suspect he also received a dowry. (The dowry of Caterina Ghiringhelli, a close relative of Giovanni’s, was worth 1,200 florins, which was quite respectable at that time). But that was not the point, for as a writing warns «whomsoever lays trust in the florins is one who seeks bitterness and shuns sweetness».

143

CASTLE TRAIL 6

Family castles The small aristocracy around lakes Varese and Maggiore AZZATE BESOZZO

Armed figures, detail from Crucifixion, first-quarter of the 15th century. Leggiuno, Santa Caterina del Sasso

The northern portion of what was then known as the County of Milan – from Varese to the Brianza and the Adda – is now a densely populated area featuring several large provincial cities, namely Varese, Monza and Lecco. The image you get when looking at a map of this vast territory is the sheer density of urban settlements, some of which characterised by significant populations. In addition to the ones just mentioned, the list of densely populated centres include Gallarate, Busto Arsizio, Legnano, Saronno, Rho, Meda, Cantù, Desio, Carate Brianza, Vimercate and many more.

The role played by these settlements – at one time specifically called borgo (plural: borghi) – in the middle ages is what truly differentiate them from what they are now. With the exception of Monza, important centres today enjoyed a lower specific weight in the dukedom of the Visconti and the Sforza than could have been expected looking at some cities today in the north of Milan and the Brianza. It is an observation applicable not only from the point of view of demographics.

Settlements that in the 17th or 18th centuries where flourishing protoindustrialist towns, home to families that could influence the economic, political and social life of their respective territories of reference, are far removed from their present reality. Not that they were totally derelict or poor, but it is still very difficult to imagine the key role they would play in local society at a later stage.

The consistent presence of a “country aristocracy,” throughout the region and all the way to the Visconti-Sforza age, capable of playing a key role in the rural world may help explain the “anomaly” of the social and economic scenario of the County of Milan in medieval times. That scenario responded more to individual persons than to places. Aristocratic families that were solidly established in Milan were as firmly rooted in the countryside, more specifically in areas where their families had their traditional interests – areas that often coincided with the place of origin of their family lineages. A few examples are illuminating: the Crivelli from around Nerviano and Parabiago; the Castiglioni (Castiglione Olona and surrounds); the Pusterla (Tradate); the Porro (Lentate), not to mention the Parravicini, the Alciati, the Carcano, the Giussani, the Grassi and the Airoldi (firmly embedded in the Brianza). Often extremely numerous, relatives of these families – there were over 100 Crivelli di Nerviano and Parabiago in the 15th century – were a constant feature of the countryside. Here they nurtured strong economic interests not only in connection with their landed properties. In most cases they were wealth145

FAMILY CASTLES

ier than the members of the farming classes and the members of those elite manufacturing and mercantile classes that lived in the cities of the dukedom.

At times, though not always, endowed with the privilege of being considered citizens of Milan – which translated into significant fiscal and legal advantages – these aristocrats were treated more favourably than the rest of the rural world. They avoided paying certain taxes or pretended to pay them in a different way; they kept away from local institutions; they claimed, in other words, a special status in local society. But their role in that society was key; their influence was often decisive. Rural aristocrats were often the biggest land owners and also the biggest operators in the local economy; but they were also those who managed tax collection, in the process making significant gains from the undertaking; represented the community before the duke and his officials; sat in the higher administrative institutions. Often also belonging to this class were the most important ecclesiastics or the canons or provosts in country churches.

The “homeland” of these country aristocrats was not the large centres of the countryside, which they attended but which ultimately had little attraction for them. For what really mattered to a Crivelli, a Pusterla, was to be a Crivelli or a Pusterla. To be a member of the right family meant much more than being at the “right place.” After all for those who could rely on family tradition, as well as the right relatives, there was little that could be added to their local chances by living in larger communities. The pattern, the vicious circle, that occurred went as follows: on one hand there were the “big” families that were little attracted by towns that were still small (they were attracted, if anything, by the bigger cities nearby), while on the other hand there were the towns that remained “small” because they were unable to attract the “big” families. The little weight major rural centres carried up to the late middle ages thus combined with the family-oriented vocation of those lands where the relations network of aristocratic families continued to be predominant.

That is why in those areas most of the significant non-religious buildings of the Visconti-Sforza era are often located away from the historic centres of the oldest cities. Or that is why, more surprisingly, it is the historic centres of the smaller towns that feature buildings that are generally of greater quality than those in the larger towns and cities nearby. Consider, in this light, Castiglione Olona, or, less conspicuously, Besozzo and Azzate, the two settlements at the heart of this part of this journey.

Though both these towns have castles, what is interesting to note is the presence near them of a row of elegant “aristocratic homes,” as such fine residences were classified in contemporary maps. Restructured 146

Lombardy sculptor, Medallion with the bust of Giovanni Bossi, 1490 ca. Milan, Museo d’Arte Antica, formerly at Azzate, casa Castellani Fantoni

CASTLE TRAIL 6

147

FAMILY CASTLES

over the centuries, often these prominent buildings are today in a state of disrepair. Nevertheless they stand out in the local architecture – mostly consisting of farm and cottage buildings – thanks to the presence of family insignia, elegant street doors, loggias and sometimes courtly style frescoes, as in Azzate. These residences were owned by members of families that linked their names to the village: the Bossi at Azzate, the Besozzi at Besozzo. The principal branches of these families were entitled to the castle. But the real sense behind those fortifications would be missed if the local web of family ties were not taken into due consideration. The castle at Besozzo – as at Azzate – was part of wider “family history,” traces of which can still be found in the town.

The story of these castles was somewhat different from that involving the Visconti fortresses in nearby localities at Somma, Albizzate and many other towns, because the castles founded by the Visconti in the Seprio towards the end of the 13th century occurred in places where the family had no roots. We do not find around these castles the “family substrata” that was, on the other hand, a distinguishing feature of the Besozzi and Bossi fortresses.

Land of the Bossi, Azzate is the first leg of the tour we have in mind.

But as a starter for those who are driving on the A8 highway is the Santa Maria church at Brunello, with its splendid 15th century Judgement Day. After Santa Maria, follow the indications for Azzate, with its castles and “aristocratic homes.” After having admired lake Varese and the hills around it from the belvedere on via Monte Grappa, the road leads away from the small town centre and down to the lake to Bardello. On the way there, by Bodio, a tree-lined boulevard intersects the road: it is the boulevard that leads to villa Bossi. Constructed in the 16th century and extensively restructured in the following centuries, the villa was probably edified on a medieval fortress that belonged to the family. At Bardello, follow the indications for Gavirate, turning after a few hundred metres for Besozzo. The castle, which can be reached by foot or by car, is on top of a hill that dominates the present-day town. On the opposite rise there is the parish church of SS Alessandro and Tiburzio, a foundation strictly linked to the Besozzi family. The tour can finish with a visit to two other religious buildings also connected to the family’s history. A couple of kilometres from Besozzo, the country church dedicated to SS Peter and Paul, with its cycle of frescoes dating between 14th and 16th centuries, constitutes one of the best examples of the Romanic style in the province of Varese. Exponents of the Besozzi family were often provosts or canons at the church, a privilege they maintained all the way to the modern age. But even more closely connected with the family is the nearby hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso, whose foundation has been traditionally linked to the family saint, the Blessed Alberto Besozzi. The heritage can be reached by following the indications, just outside Brebbia, for Laveno-Mombello, then for Lago-Bozza, until the Provinciale 69 road. After having turned right, there is after approximately five kilometres, the turning for Santa Caterina. Thanks to a lift, the descent to the monastery, located in sheer drop over the lake, takes but a few seconds. The view of the lake and the surrounding mountains is simply breathtaking.

148

The game of tarots, 15th century, detail. Azzate, villa Lampugnani

CASTLE TRAIL 6

149

VILLA BOSSI ZAMPOLLI

CASTLE AND THE HOUSES OF THE BOSSI FAMILY MUNICIPALITY: Azzate (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Bossi, Obicini, Zampolli STATE OF PRESERVATION: rebuilt CURRENT USE: private residence

Located on the slope overlooking lake Varese, the borgo of Azzate was already protected by fortifications in the 13th century, when the local lords joined the Viscontis in the fight for the control of Milan.

But to identify within the settlement the “classic” layout of a castle is no easy task. In fact, the building south of the town (villa Bossi Zampolli, but still known today as “Castello”), with a view on the Bossa or Bodia valley, as well as the town’s other prominent buildEntrance to villa Bossi Zampolli, Azzate

150

ing on the opposite end (villa Benizzi Castellani, which houses the town hall and the Locanda dei Mai Intees inn), were best described, all the way to the modern era, as a complex of fortified homes. These groups of aristocratic residences were transformed into elegant holiday homes only between the 17th and 18th centuries and have always belonged to the Bossi, the family that heavily influenced the town’s development since the middle ages.

Not unlike what occurred at Besozzo and Castiglione Olona for the Besozzi and the Castiglioni, most of the prominent buildings at Azzate belonged to the Bossis, and to establish which belonged to which of the family’s many branches would prove to be impossible rather than just merely difficult.

Located in via Castello, on a rise just off the city centre, the “Castello” or villa Bossi Zampolli, the town’s most imposing build-

AZZATE

ing, can however be linked to the branch of the family that was infiefed in the Bodia valley. The family owned the place probably from the 1300s to 1810, carrying work that in the 18th century transformed it into an elegant country house, as we see it today.

Scanty 15th century traces have survived in the shape of the villa’s attached country cottages (a pointed window with brick frame) and frescoes at San Lorenzo, the church oratory that already existed in the 13th century. By relying on surviving original structures, an unknown 18th century architect reshaped the building by creating a highly scenic entrance in what was the space occupied by the castle. A row of buildings, bearing the oxen coat-of-arms of the Bossi and aligned to act as a backdrop, delimits the funnel-shaped perspective that, through small piazzas and corridors, ensures that the visitors’ gaze is focused on the Tuscan architrave portico of the main courtyard. Behind it, there rises the solid profile of the villa, overlooking the parterres of an Italian garden that in turn merges into an English-style park commanding a splendid view over the lake and the Mt Rosa chain.

Continuing the visit of the small village of Azzate, one often encounters the Bossi coat-of-arms, with the grey ox on a red field that are the representation of the famous bö d’Azzàa, the ox of Azzate. What remains of the 15th century is concealed in an intricate maze of narrow streets that afford breathtaking glimpses of the lake and mountains, in neo-gothic towers, baroque-style edifices and rigorous Renaissance churches (observe the façade of the 1525 deconsecrated Sant’Antonio church in via Volta). A splendid

street door appears at 20, via Volta, while a courtyard with imposing gothic arches on square pillars and traces of frescoes can be admired towards the end of the same street, just opposite the entrance to villa Benizzi Castellani. Under the portico of villa Benizzi Castellani, a building that has completely lost its 15th century aspect now hosting the town council, there survive fragments of renaissance mottos emerging from the rocaille. A commemorative plaque, recalling the restoration work ordered by Giovanni and Matteo Bossi in 1495, can be seen at the back of the building. Alongside it were marble medallions that are now kept at the Sforza Castle in Milan. Opposite the villa are the remains of what was probably another fortification – aka the “Praetorian” – dating back to Roman times. A number of the private residences in this area host some of the most outstanding frescoes of 15th century Lombardy art. In these, indecipherable emblems, coat-of-arms, mottos and courtly scenes alternate graffito fasces drawn in the old style.

Another princely segment of town is located in the small piazza at the top of via Riva, likewise a few steps away from villa Benizzi Castellani, which is encircled by aristocratic edifices, with attached cottages, and watched over by a dovecot tower, bearing the Visconti snake, which may well be one of the few original 15th century structures among many romantic reconstructions.

The final stopover is at the belvedere square that was recently made on via Monte Grappa: the view of lake Varese, the Mt. Rosa chain and the Campo dei Fiori is breathtaking. It is arguably one of the most spectacular sights in the whole of Lombardy.

151

PALAZZOS CADARIO AND ADAMOLI

BESOZZO CASTLE MUNICIPALITY: Besozzo (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Besozzi, Adamoli, Foderati di Val d’Elsa STATE OF PRESERVATION: rebuilt CURRENT USE: private residence

The 13th century tower in the garden at palazzo Adamoli, Besozzo

Entrance tower at palazzo Cadario with the loggia, Besozzo 152

The castle rises on top of the Besozzo superiore hill, dominating the Bardello torrent and the modern town. A clue to its venerable age is the 13th century tower located in one of the castle gardens and clearly visible from various parts below. Nothing else of the original

structures has survived and the castle presents itself in two separate 15th century buildings that have been successively reconstructed.

On the left climbing up from via Giulio Adamoli there is palazzo Cadario, whose entrance is dominated by a large renaissance tower featuring corbels and light loggia.

The gate, featuring a rusticated decoration as with the rest of the castle, leads to the courtyard. Here lies an elegant 16th century portico with columns in Angera stone, while a grand escalier leads to the interior, some of whose rooms were frescoed in modern times.

Opposite the entrance of palazzo Cadario, a beautiful 16th century gate in serizzo marble, decorated by stylised flowers, acts as the entrance to palazzo Adamoli, the second building block of the present-day complex. Traces of the renaissance graffito drawings are visible on the back wing of the courtyard that opens on the east. In a room on the master floor of the building, today owned by the Foderati di Val d’Elsa, Giuseppe Garibaldi slept in 1863, guest of general Adamoli. In the apartment, among antique furniture and valuable collectibles, that “famous” bed still exists; and it must have been quite a comfortable bed, considering that a few years later, in 1867, it was Giuseppe Mazzini’s turn to sleep on it. The castle is indissolubly linked to the Besozzi, a family belonging to the local military nobility with roots going back to pre-communal times. It was at the beginning of the 15th century, during the turmoil that followed duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti’s death (1402), that the branch of the Besozzi family infiefed in the castle reached its zenith. In those years Pietro, the leader of the Ghibelline faction that held sway in the area

BESOZZO

153

Santa Caterina del Sasso Literally hanging on a cliff at a sheer drop over lake Maggiore, the hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso of Leggiuno – or Santa Caterina al Sassoballaro, according to the old documents – is one of the most suggestive spots of the Varese shore of lake Verbano. Built in three blocks linked by attractive little squares featuring elegant loggias that overlook the lake and the mountains, the compound can be reached by climbing down a steep stairway, by lift or by boat. The origins of the cenobioum – formerly dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari – as well as the events involving the blessed Alberto Besozzi, who is worshipped here, are shrouded in legend. It is told that blessed Besozzi was caught in the middle of storm while sailing on the lake: he invoked the help of St Catherine of Alexandria and was saved. After which, Alberto, who was a rich merchant and moneylender, tore off his secular garbs and embraced a hermit’s life on this rocky spur.

At the end of the 14th century, the small religious centre received new impetus following the establishment of links with the hermits of Sant’Ambrogio ad nemus, a monastery constructed on the edge of castle park in Milan. Towards the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the next one, the monastery was definitely dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria and underwent restoration and extension. A key role at this stage was played by Donnina Rusca, wife of Pietro Besozzi, lord of the Brebbia country church, but above all daughter of Franchino, deposed lord of Como and granddaughter of Bernabò Visconti. The patronage granted to the hermitage-sanctuary by the noblewoman was aimed at consolidating the family ties between the Ruscas and the Besozzis and therefore their jointpower in the lower Verbano. Several fresco fragments are a testimony of the decorations that took place around this time. Of some significance are the ones depicting the group of armigers at the Chapter Hall, in the southern block of the hermitage.

Part of a larger cycle of uncertain theme, the surviving fragments depict an extraordinary group of 14th century soldiery.

For centuries, the Besozzi were the patrons of the

154

Pietro Crespi, Crucifixion, 1510. Leggiuno, Santa Caterina del Sasso

sanctuary, holding unendorsed rights over it. The first three decades of the 16th century saw works being commissioned by the noblewoman Angela Carcano, a relative of a Besozzi, and the nobleman Francesco Besozzi, a notary public in Milan. The latter, a well known client of the artist Bernardino Luini, is solemnly painted in the chapel dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, the tutelary saint of the Besozzis, at San Maurizio in Milan. The fame of the religious centre received at this time a further boost with the mortal spoils of the Blessed Alberto Besozzi, which were found on 13 July 1535. Other early 16th century works include the outstanding Crucifixion, a painting on wood made and signed by the Busto Arsizio painter Pietro Crespi, and several fresco cycles by local artists who painted in the style of Luini.

BESOZZO

of lake Maggiore and who was related to the Visconti and to the Rusca, another influential family – obtained the official feudal investiture not only for Besozzo but for the entire jurisdiction that referred to the country church of Brebbia.

It turned out to be a short-lived investiture for by 1417 it had been reduced only to include Besozzo.

In the successive years the family proved incapable to continue playing a primary role in the wider political arena. The main as well as minor branches of the family, however, continued to wield power at a local level all the way to the modern age. The many, rich and deeply rooted lines of the family formed the backbone of society throughout the area. This family-oriented power base is well reflected in the layout of the quarter that developed around the fortress.

Walking out of the castle along the streets nearby – along via Adamoli and via Sant’Antonio, or along via Monfrini – it is possible to observe the many edifices on the hilltop arranged like a crown around the castle. These were at one time owned by the many cadet branches of the Besozzi that lived here.

Although these “aristocratic homes” have been split up or are today in a poor state of conservation, they still show clear signs of their past majesty notwithstanding

the restorations and neglect they have undergone. Courtyards with loggias, refined columns and capitals, richly decorated street doors distinguish these residences from contemporary rural constructions.

Many entrances still bear, above, the Ghibelline eagle, which was the coat-of-arms of the Besozzi, a fine example of which is conserved at via Monfrini, by house number 3.

From the same street, a staircase leads up to the church of SS Alessandro and Tiburzio, an ancient foundation linked to the Besozzi where numerous family members are buried. Presently the venue of the parish, the church was renovated in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Entrance to palazzo Adamoli, Besozzo 155

CASTLE TRAIL 7

In the footsteps of the Castiglioni A County along the Olona VARESE, MASNAGO CASTIGLIONE OLONA VENEGONO SUPERIORE TRADATE

Lombardy painter, Falcon Hunting, mid-15th century.

Varese, Masnago Castle, Hall of Amusements

The Castiglionis are one of the oldest families in Milan. The family has kept a record of the salient events of its history in a series of arrases kept in their sumptuous palaces in Milan and Castiglione Olona since the 15th century.

The Castiglionis distinguished themselves as high prelates (abbots, bishops and cardinals), jurists, merchants, traders, bankers, chancellors, ducal aides and secretaries, while some successfully pursued the profession of arms and letters. Their fame spread far and wide, as far as Flanders and Hungary, contributing significantly to stimulating cultural exchange during the Renaissance. Branches of the family set root in Bari and Mantova. A celebrated figure from the Mantova branch was Baldassarre, author of The Courtesan, the iconic text of Italian renaissance.

If in Milan the Castiglionis, who were Guelphs, had their headquarters where piazza della Scala is now located, not too far away from the Torrianis, in the country their power base lay along the course of the river Olona.

Though the centre of their dominion was the ancestral borgo of Castiglione, the territory they controlled went beyond the valley and included the fortified slopes of Morazzone (overlooking the valley of the Arno), Casciago and Masnago (overlooking the lake of Varese), Binago, Appiano and Mozzate (in the province of Como).

The control of the Olona soon pitted the Castiglioni against the other Milanese families, chief among which were the Pusterla, the masters of Tradate. The struggle between the Castiglionis and the Pusterlas was particularly vicious in the 14th century and the early part of the 15th century in the lands of the Seprio and north of Milan, and ran parallel with the plots that marked the strenuously contrasted rise to power of the Viscontis in Milan. If the domination of the Pusterla over Tradate loosened the control over the Olona in the middle of its course, that of the Lampugnani – another noble family with firm roots in the territory – over Legnano weakened the positions of the Castiglioni at the point where the river, leaving behind the mountains, starts its run across the moorlands on its way to the city. With the Lampugnanis, though, the Castiglionis were able to establish a more peaceful cohabitation thanks to a wise policy of marriages as testified by the frequent recurrence of the coat-of-arms of the two families in many of frescoes that decorate their numerous family castles.

Among the countless branches of the family, the noblest ones hailed from Casciago, successively becoming the masters of Garlasco in the Lomellina (1436) and Marano near Novara (1466), and from Castiglione Olona, to which belonged cardinal Branda, created count of Venegono Superiore in 1454.

This journey cannot begin but in the Hall of Vices and Virtues at Masnago Castle, followed by a stopover at Casciago, where St. Augustine stayed after his conversion, and where one of the branches of the Castiglioni family orig157

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE CASTIGLIONI

Masolino da Panicale (in collaboration with Lorenzo di Pietro, aka Il Vecchietta?), Mountain landscape with city and castle, 1435 ca, detail.

Castiglione Olona, palazzo Branda Castiglioni

inated. Nothing has survived of Casciago Castle, but towers built under as part of the 19th century revivalist mode spring up here and there behind wrought iron fences and the foliage of age-old trees in the many parks of the villas located on the slope that declines towards lake Varese. Worth the stopover is the view afforded from the garden at villa Castelbarco, whose present structures most likely absorbed part of the old castle. Villa Castelbarco is today home to the municipality and the elementary school. From the thick cluster of villas that make up the town centre, the web of narrow streets and staircases wind down, between old country cottages, offering a sweeping view of the lake and a few glimpses of the Mt. Rosa range.

Back towards Masnago and Varese, one is struck by the impressive stony spur rising against the green backdrop of Sacro Monte: it is the Tower of Velate, the only surviving vestige of a castrum from late antiquity that was rebuilt in the 11th century – the time the tower was made – but no longer in use by the 12th century. The tower was recently declared a heritage of Fai (Fondo Ambiente Italiano), the Italian environmental fund. Though the temptation to take the road to Sant’Ambrogio coasting along art nouveau parks is strong, the main attraction is no doubt the Sacro Monte, the sacred mound that, with its 17th century chapels and the baroque church rising over an existing renaissance structure and 13th century vestiges, would deserve a day’s outing on its own, with a stop at the Burducan – an art nouveau hotel and restaurant with view of the lake and surrounding mountains – to taste the Burducan Elixir, a liquor consisting of alpine herbs and Mediterranean fruits blended according to a well-guarded secret recipe first concocted by a globe-trotting garibaldino who finally settled in Varese after extensive travelling in the east.

The tour continues, past the pre-alpine provincial city, to Bizzozero. Here the central parish church piazza features the early signs of castle structures in the genteel shape of towers, probably rebuilt in the 17th century as a precocious local revival of medieval architecture. Behind the church of SS Evasio and Stephen, a narrow street leads up to the ancient castle. Currently a private residence, the structure presents tenuous echoes of its fortified past, with the vague outline of a tower and several mullioned windows, probably remade at a successive stage. Its strategic location is immediately clear in a commanding 158

CASTLE TRAIL 7

159

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE CASTIGLIONI

The Castiglioni Archive at Castiglione Olona The municipality of Castiglione Olona conserves a unique collection of papers, belonging to the Castiglioni family, in the old palazzo of cardinal Branda. We are not dealing with the usual heap of contracts and account books relating to the Castiglioni household, but the outcome of the patient work of count Francesco Castiglioni, who died in 1846 and was the heir of the counts of Venegono, aimed at preserving and indexing the deeds of the Castiglionis that were kept at the

Broletto, the notarial archive in Milan. Today the deeds issued by the notaries of the time are kept at the State Archive in via Senato in Milan. A series of elegant volumes gather, as in a rubric, the unending indexes of notarial documents that have either been summarised or simply listed, having some of the original copies been lost.

These documents are an invaluable source for the reconstruction of the family’s history from the 14th to the 19th centuries.

position over the Olona below and with a view across the entire expanse to the road to Como. The castle originally belonged to the Casciago Castiglioni – who administered the lands below and the mills at Gurone – but by the 16th century had been passed down by way of marriage to the Bizzozeri family.

Deserving a small detour but without leaving Bizzozero is the Santo Stefano church. Located hard by the borgo in a Roman site, the edifice is in the Romanic style. Within is a fascinating stratification of votive frescoes culminating in the renaissance cycle by Galdino da Varese (1498), the most important exponent of the 15th century Varese school, who locally contextualised the world of jubilant putti and oculi of trompe l’œil architectures recurrent in renaissance centres.

The expanse of the Olona valley below Lozza marks the arrival to Castiglione Olona. You can still somehow perceive the towers that dotted the hilltops watching over Olona bridge and the adjacent public house in keeping a careful eye on the transit between Varese and Milan, for herein was the main road link connecting the capital city with Varese and Switzerland. A landslide of industrial warehouses has all but ruined this part of the valley that just below Castiglione narrows, funnel-like. From here rises the harsh hill, atop of which the renaissance parish church where at one time stood the Castle of the Catiglionis.

Higher up from Castiglione there rises Venegono Superiore. From here the Castiglionis wielded their influence on Binago, the town that controlled the road to Como, and on Appiano, venue of the last country church, just at the border with the Como countship.

It should be observed that a short distance from Castiglione and Venegono there are the ruins of ancient Sibrium (Castelseprio), the urban settlement dating back to late antiquity that gave to the Seprio its name. Destroyed by the Milanese in 1287, Castelseprio is renowned for the outstanding frescoes in the Santa Maria foris portas church. The paintings, most likely made by an unknown byzantine or Syriac artist, are unique in Western Europe. But to remain in a strictly renaissance milieu, one should not forget that the Santa Maria church was decorated with a splendid fresco representing the Nativity, which was detached and now kept in the San Martino church at nearby Carnago. The refined architectural layout, the exasperated use of decorative pat160

CASTLE TRAIL 7

terns from ancient Rome (so dear to Renaissance men), the frilled draperies, all reveal that the painter was much influenced by the artistic experimentation underway in Ferrara. The question that immediately comes to mind is who could have ever commissioned an artist to paint in the out-of-way woods of the Seprio – a provincial painter but well versed with the latest artistic trends?

The painting also provides a clue as to how the castles of the Castiglioni, Pusterla and Visconti were decorated at the end of the 15th century.

Below the hill at Castelseprio, Torba Tower, an ancient appendix of the town’s fortified defences and now part of the Fai heritage, hosted in the 15th century a monastery held by the women of Pusterla House. The family, which rivalled the Castiglionis in power, controlled the entire quarter of porta Ticinese in Milan and the fertile lands around Carpiano in the south. Though nothing has survived of the Pusterlas’ 15th century stronghold at Tradate, the town nevertheless conserves structures originally belonging to the family’s vast properties.

The provincial road to Saronno connects several towns including the hamlet of Mozzate, known as San Martino. Concealed by trees, just by the road, there appears what now looks like a villa. Its architectural structure, tightly packed around a courtyard, echoes the past presence of the ancient castle of San Martino under the 18th century decorations and wrought iron balconies. Belonging to the Castiglionis, it was the first castle they possessed along the road from Milan, providing a safe haven when things got politically out of hand in Milan and acting as a comfortable country residence in times of peace. Behind the building, set against a backdrop of modern buildings, there lies the Santa Maria Solaro monastery, most likely at one time part of the fortress. Inside is another renaissance pictorial composition, this too by a provincial author (1490-1500 circa). Under the enthroned Virgin is arranged a row of worshippers, all men and all painted with some artistic prowess. Could they have been a confraternity or the portraits of men belonging to Castiglioni House? Just around the corner there is Cislago, with its towered palazzo. But here we are already in Visconti country.

Worshippers, detail of Virgin Enthroned, last decade of the 15th century. San Martino di Mozzate, Santa Maria Solaro

161

MASNAGO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Varese, Masnago TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Castiglioni, Castiglioni Stampa, Mantegazza, Panza STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with rebuilding CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Public Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art

162

The presence of fortifications at Masnago has been recorded since the 11th century. Enclosing the parish church of San Pietro and the presentday castle, the fortified wall was in close contact with the strongholds at Velate, Santa Maria del Monte, Casciago and Varese. The castle has belonged to the Casciago Castiglionis since the 14th century. The brothers Obizzo, Giovanni, Guarnerio and Giovanni Andrea, erudite jurists at Pavia with government duties under Filippo Maria Visconti (1412-1447), all lived in the castle and carried out significant work on it during the 15th century. For centuries the castle remained a property of the Castiglionis, albeit of the family’s cadet branches. In the early part of the 19th century, the Masnago estate was sold to Angelo Mantegazza. After a brief period under the Panza family, the building was taken over to the Varese municipality in 1981.

Located on top of the hill with a view of the lake of Varese and the Sacro Monte, the castle now looks like the typical Lombardy villa. Built around a courtyard partly surrounded by a portico, the edifice comprises two distinct building blocks: to the east a compact trapezoidal block going back to the 15th century, and to the southwest a 17th century L-shaped block that encircles the courtyard and merges with the original structures. To the north is the entrance, which is flanked by a tower. If the tower’s crown of merlons is from the 19th century, the brickwork – brought to light in the course of recent restoration – reveals its antiquity and that it was part of the fortified compound.

Out of the two, the eastern block is more interesting. Attached to the tower, it overlooked at one time a courtyard with portico as testified by a surviving 14th century column that juts out from the wall. It could

VARESE, MASNAGO

well be that the other sides of the courtyard, where the 17th century wings now stand, were closed-off in the 15th century by fairly straightforward wall. The decorations that adorned the interiors of this wing were discovered in 1938. On the ground floor, in the Hall of Amusements, the paintings feature an uninterrupted landscape of lakes and mountains that act as a backdrop to courtly pleasures. The pre-alpine lakes are dotted with elegant boats while fashionable ladies exchange flowers or play tarots. The noblemen go falcon hunting. Other damsels play music under sumptuous pavilions mounted on flowery lawns and covered with precious textiles bearing family insignia. On the hill are towers, castles and country oratories. A scene straight from 15th century lake Varese, complete with lake parapets and a leopard, exotically placed above the door of the northern wing. The animal, definitely not a local species, brings to mind the far more prestigious decorations of the Leopard Hall at Pavia Castle and the Bergamo scrapbook of Giovannino de’ Grassi with its elephants depicted in various poses. But it is likely that the Castiglionis may have had some familiarity with menagerie beasts considering that the residence where duke Filippo Maria Visconti kept leopards was close by the Milan palazzo of the Casciago Castiglionis.

As many as four rooms are painted on the upper floor. The Hall of Vices and Virtues is exactly on top of the Hall of Amusements. Here, against a red background, which was probably at one time blue lapis lazuli, stand out symbolic often enigmatic figures.

Each virtue comes with two of its opposite vices. The personifications of the negative and positive qualities are represented at their most characteristic. Thus we have on the eastern

wall chastity in monkish garb alongside seductive lust and the lady, with portable mirror and hair stick, representing vanity. The decorations of these two principal halls most likely go back to the time when the castle was inhabited by Giovanni Castiglioni (who died in 1443) and Maria Lampugnani, daughter of the masters of Legnano. In most instances, the coat-of-arms of the Lampugnani and Castiglioni are entwined with each other. As for the adjacent room,

Lombardy painter, Lady with portable organ, mid-15th century. Varese, Masnago Castle, Hall of Amusements

15th century tower at Masnago, Varese. Note the 19th century merlons 163

Hall of Vices and Virtues.

Varese, Masnago Castle

Lombardy painter, Avarice, Parsimony and Prodigality, mid-15th century. Varese, Masnago Castle, Hall of Vices and Virtues 164

the decorations may be traced back to the same or maybe earlier period.

The pattern chosen here are compasses arranged in a continuous geometrical pattern as was fashionable since the 14th century. This room features a niche with a Crucifixion with saints.

The atmosphere is completely different in the other two halls. The decorations in the north-eastern corner hall, dating to the beginning of the 15th century, feature a colonnade along the entire room. The column trunks are broken off by monstrous masks. The frieze above them takes the shape of medallions containing the portraits of family members and historic or mythological figures.

Painted most likely in the 1530s, the iconographic themes in the last hall continue, on the other hand, to be shrouded in mystery. Under a 15th

century finely decorated wooden ceiling elegant friezes frame enigmatic images. The themes are in part sacred and in part profane. The naked woman is probably Arianna abandoned. Emblems surrounded by writings now all but erased conceal a symbolic meaning that is lost to us visitors.

The urban settlement that developed around the castle and the church features elements from the distant past.

Opposite the Parish church, for example, there is a large truncated tower, signalling that the fortifications at one time extended thus far to enclose the houses belonging to the Casciago Castiglionis. Towards the south, the castle is now surrounded by an English style park that extends to the large gate, surmounted by 18th century lions, the traditional symbol of Castiglioni House.

VARESE, MASNAGO

165

BORGO OF CASTIGLIONE OLONA

CASTIGLIONE OLONA CASTLE

-

MUNICIPALITY: Castiglione Olona (Varese) TYPOLOGY: stronghold FAMILY LINEAGE: Castiglioni STATE OF PRESERVATION: traces; the castle site is now occupied by the parish church and the baptistery

Aerial shot of the borgo of Castiglione Olona, on the right, the parish church

166

Castiglione Olona castle has been destroyed and reconstructed many times during its history. The place name, containing the word castello (“castle”), as well as the presence of the nearby late empire fortifications of Torba and Castelseprio, suggest that Castiglione was the site of a castrum included in the Roman fortified system set up to control the Olona valley and the roads that converged here, connecting Como to Novara, Milan and the Alps. Documented proof of a castle being pres-

ent here goes back to the 11th century. Razed and rebuilt more than once in the 13th century in the course of the armed conflict involving the Torriani and the Visconti, the castle was rebuilt, starting 1423, by the Castiglionis led by cardinal Branda. From that date, following the construction of the parish church, the castle also became the town’s religious centre. The castle, as well as the chaplaincies of the parish church, was administered by a Castiglioni family consortium, members of which elected, in the course of a general assembly, the lord of the castle and the chaplains, agreeing to pool the costs for the restructuring of the castle.

Following the death of duke Filippo Maria Visconti (1447), several member of the Castiglioni clan promoted the establishment of the Ambrosiana Republic, as a consequence their castle in Seprio was occupied and partly destroyed (1448-1451) by Filippo Maria Visconti, count of Albizzate who

CASTIGLIONE OLONA

belonged to the faction of Francesco Sforza (1450-1466). Following the flight of Ludovico il Moro (14801499) and the entry of the French in Milano (1499), most of the Castiglionis swore allegiance to France.

Over the following decade, the castle was the focus point of skirmishes, involving Swiss soldiery and the French army, which culminated in the devastating sack of 1510. With the ascension of Massimiliano Sforza (1512-1515) to the ducal throne, the most prominent members of the family were declared rebels and their property confiscated. In 1513, the duke ordered senator Giovanni Battista Pusterla the total destruction of the town and castle, but the Castiglionis, in exchange of a large payment of money, came to an agreement – on the road between Varese and Bizzozero – with the Swiss military leader who had been entrusted with executing the order. According to the terms of the accord, only the castle would be destroyed, while family residences and churches would be spared. That which was still standing of the fortress was consequently razed to the ground by Francesco II Sforza (1521-1535), who, on his return to power, once again condemned the Castiglioni and confiscated their property.

The ruins of the Castiglioni ancestral home rest on the rocky spur that dominates Olona valley. The perimeter wall must have been quadrilateral with three sides being defended by the 20-metre high cliff rising over the river. Contemporary documents mention imposing towers that contributed to make the castle look even higher from the valley below.

Of the castle, only the gate remains, placed at the end of the steep road which climbs up from the town and which was, at one time, protected by a drawbridge placed over a moat

that has been interred. It could well be that the turret next to the church sacristy, the bell tower and the edifice housing the baptistery, are surviving elements from the castle’s original fortified towers, meaning that a visit to Castiglione Olona Castle must necessarily include the parish church and the baptistery enclosed within the old fortress.

The church dedicated to SS Stephen and Lawrence was constructed within the castle between 1421 and 1428 as a replacement of the old San Pietro church by Alberto, Giovanni and Pietro Solari, sons of Marco da Carona, the architect of the Duomo of Milan. The decorations probably date after 1431. The date of 1435 appears on the baptistery, meaning that the decorations in the parish church, too, must have been made around these years. Rather than wood paintings, the church altars have stone ancons painted in lively

Masolino da Panicale, Angels, detail of Baptism of Christ, 1435. Castiglione Olona, baptistery

167

Façade of Monteruzzo Castle, Castiglione Olona

168

colours by craftsmen working with Carona. These same craftsmen made the funeral monument of cardinal Branda (ca. 1443), which is in an arch on the left of the principal altar. The church contains traces of other family tombs as well. The painting of the frescoes saw the involvement the mature Masolino da Panicale from Florence, who worked on the Histories of the Virgin on the apse, and the young artists Lorenzo di Pietro, aka Vecchietta, from Siena, and Paolo Schiavo, from Florence but probably of Slav origins, who together worked on Histories of SS Stephen and Lawrence.

At the opposite end of the castle with respect to the church – among the two edifices where there was a cloister surrounded by the canons’ quarter – the baptistery, with its two small rooms, conserve the frescoes

by Masolino, the Histories from the life of St. John the Baptist, considered a universally acknowledged masterpiece of the Italian renaissance. Here, as well as in the paintings at the parish church, the Tus-

cany artists, while painting according to their own personal styles, appear to have allowed themselves to be influenced by the gothic-courtly modes of local painting rather than bring about sweeping changes to Lombardy art.

As the visit to Castiglione Olona progresses, one notices that the town is actually enclosed in the section between the castle height and the hill of Monteruzzo, where there now is a castle, the palazzo of the Monteruzzo Castiglionis, a 17th century fake that dominated the town in the south. At one time, all the houses at the foot of the castle belonged to the Castiglionis. For the higher ranking among them those residences were not their principal ones, they were alternative homes to their official ones in Milan, but which they jealously treasured as a tangible sign of their roots and territorial dominance. It was only in the 17th century that those houses changed ownership, taken over by the Clerici, the Magenta and the Piccinelli, the families that were on the rise at that time

CASTIGLIONE OLONA

in the area between Milan and the Seprio. Occurring frequently along the maze of streets and alleys are coat-of-arms bearing a lion rampant with castle, the family’s emblem.

At the foot of the palazzo at Monteruzzo there is the so-called Corte del Doro, formerly a Castiglioni possession now belonging to the municipality and redesigned to host MAP, the museum for the plastic arts, Italy’s first museum dedicated entirely to artworks in plastic as well a tangible acknowledgment of Castiglione Olona’s recent history and massive industrial area in the Olona valley south of the castle. Yet among the plastic works on show, the atmosphere of ducal castles is here evoked by the beautiful decorations that have been brought to light in the museum courtyard and

interior: innocent hares frolicking among green trees as herons fly above amidst a series of geometrical decoration and faux architectures in lively colours.

In the square created by the intersection of four streets there rises the building that was home to cardinal Branda. Here was the town’s other centre of power besides the castle.

The cardinal’s palazzo consist of two building blocks – the one overlooking the internal courtyard is of the 15th century, while the other, facing the street, is of the 16th. The two building blocks are linked to each other by an edifice with an elegant loggetta and hosting the tiny chapel of San Martino. On the street side, the building bears the signs of the ancient brick-framed large windows and the beautiful marble gate bear-

Cardinal Branda Master craftsmen of the Carona workshop, Sarcophagus of cardinal Branda, post 1443, detail. Castiglione Olona, Parish Church

Branda Castiglioni (Milan, 1350 – Castiglione Olona, 1443), eldest son of Maffiolo and Lucrezia of the counts Porro, studied canon law at Pavia and soon taught the subject there. In 1389, he was sent by Gian Galeazzo Visconti as an envoy to the pontifical court in Rome. From that point his career took off: auditor of the Sacred Roman Rota, protonotary apostolic, bishop of Piacenza (1404), cardinal (1411), pontifical legate in Germany, Hungary and Bohemia. He was a leading figure during

the Councils of Costanza (1414-1418) and BasleFerrara-Florence (1431-1445). Personal friend of emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, Branda Castiglioni was created count of the Hungarian region of Veszpém. Besides taking action to renovate the family’s ancestral town, the cardinal was also a prominent patron of the arts, commissioning work for the San Clemente church in Rome, and the construction of a building for his nephews in Milan, now palazzo Cagnola at via Cusani. He founded at Castiglione Olona a grammar school whose first teacher was the Moravian John of Olmütz, author of an encomiastic biography of the cardinal which was found in the prelate’s tomb in Castiglione in 1935. After returning from the Council of Florence, Branda retired in Castiglione where he died in 1443 at the age of ninety-three.

169

Countryside scenes, mid-15th century. Castiglione Olona, Corte del Doro, hall on the first floor

ing the ducal feather badge surmounted by the inevitable family coat-of-arms. Most likely, the edifice had been completed as we see it now by 1431, while the decorations inside were probably finalised between 1435 and 1438, the period when the cardinal was most assiduously present, residing at Castiglione between sessions of the Council of Basel.

Truly outstanding are the decorations in the palace rooms. On the walls of the chapel, loggia, Putti and Landscape rooms, there are pictorial cycles that provide a glimpse of how court life must have been in the 15th century. In the San Martino chapel, painted by the Vecchietta from Siena in the second-half of the 1430s, are frescoes, rediscovered only in 1982, depicting virgin saints and saints confessors lined on either side of a Crucifixion delicately featuring colours that mellow from rose to lilac and green. The decoration was at one time beautified by gilded and enamelled metallic metals that must have contributed to brighten and embellish the place significantly. The 170

small loggia above, although spoiled by the addition of a staircase, presents an iconographic apparatus with an overtly moralising overtone dedicated to the personification of virtues in the heroes and heroines of times past. The splendid still life placed almost casually under the painted architectonic structure alone is worth the visit. The didactic nature of the work here is repeated also in the Putti room. The frescoes in this room depict naked babies running about and playing among leafy trees set against a lively red background – which may have been at one time in bright lapis lazuli blue – but the scrolls and the writing highlight that what is taking place is not merely children at play, for each and every gesture of the putti may represent a deed of virtue. In the following room, the ideal landscape that unfolds was left unfinished by Masolino. Rising, amidst rosy cliffs and mauve green lawns, are imaginary cities and towered castles with improbable architectures, all framed by fine friezes bearing the inevitable

CASTIGLIONE OLONA

cost-of-arms of the Castiglioni, this time flanked by those of the Terzaghi, the Pusterla and other related families.

Opposite Branda’s palace, on the so-called palazzo dei familiari, where probably the cardinal’s nephews stayed, there stands what remains of a beautiful brick portal that, in an atmosphere suspended between the autumn of the middle ages and the onset of the renaissance, alternates in its tiles imperial portraits and feathered crests. The town’s central piazza also features, where the uphill road to the castle starts, probably where a previous chapel once stood, the so-called “Villa Church” dedicated to the Corpus Christi and the four doctors of the church. Under construction in 1437, and probably finished in 1444, the central plan church, designed to recall the structure of the Holy

Sepulchre, is the only one in Lombardy that bear the hallmarks of the Tuscany style, with the difference that the chiaroscuro between the architectural ribs and the plastered walls is not achieved with the serena sandstone but with local stone, quarried in nearby Malnate and Saltrio.

And there is no doubt that all stonework relied on the skills of local masons. The cube, marked by a regular succession of Corinthian lesenes surmounted by a circular dome cladding with loggia, is indicative of just how the small family court absorbed the novel. Noteworthy is the tomb of the jurist Guido Castiglioni, the great nephew of cardinal Branda who died at Alessandria in 1485. Dedicated by his widow Margherita Feruffini, the funeral monument was probably a product of the bottega of Giovanni Antonio Amadeo.

The Castiglionis and the ancient Romans Masolino da Panicale, View of Rome, 1435, detail. Castiglione Olona, baptistery

The bird’s eye view of Rome in the baptistery of Castiglione Olona is justly famous. The ruins of Rome exercised a deep attraction on the Castiglionis, just as it did on most renaissance men.

While the fresco may have been a reminder of Branda’s ecclesiastic dignity, it most certainly was a clue to the cardinal’s and his family’s antiquarian passion. A passion fomented, no doubt, by Ciriaco d’Ancona, the legendary humanist and

antiquarian of the early 15th century, who is known to have been at Castiglione at the time of the cardinal’s death in 1443. Sharing an antiquarian passion with humanists around Europe, the Castiglionis found great pleasure in discovering Roman steles and milestones around the countryside and woodlands of the Seprio which they then displayed in small proto-museums in their palaces in Castiglione and Milan. A relative of the cardinal’s went as far as to be named “the Roman” for his collection of statues, epigraphs and antique medallions. Most of these collections have been dispersed but a number of milestones and altars have been conserved at palazzo Branda.

171

VENEGONO SUPERIORE CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Venegono Superiore (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Pusterla, Castiglioni, Saglier, Collini, Broggi STATE OF PRESERVATION: rebuilt CURRENT USE: venue of Daniele Comboni’s Institute of African Missions

Aerial shot of Venegono Superiore Castle

172

Venegono Castle is first mentioned in the 11th century. In 1316, the Pusterla family – already well settled at Tradate since the 1250s – acquired property at Venegono and may have come into possession of the castle. As the influence of the Pusterla grew where traditionally the Castiglioni had their power base, the rivalry between the two families, which was already

white hot in Milan, was further exacerbated. In 1409, the Pusterla captured Ubertino Castiglioni and held him captive first at Venegono and then at Monza, releasing him only after receiving a huge amount of ransom money and property.

The situation changed significantly, though, following Giovanni Pusterla’s participation in the plot against young duke Giovanni Maria (14021412), assassinated at San Gottardo in Corte in 1412. The new ruler Filippo Maria (1412-1447), brother of the murdered duke, confiscated most of the Pusterla estate. In 1425, Venegono Superiore Castle was purchased by the four nephews of cardinal Branda thanks to the prelate’s intercession. It is also likely that the Castiglioni came into possession of the small fortified castle at Venegono Inferiore alongside other property

VENEGONO SUPERIORE

which continued to be contended with the Pusterlas until the 17th century.

On 2 January 1454, emperor Frederick III Hapsburg elevated Francesco Castiglioni, one of the nephews of cardinal Branda, to the rank of count of Venegono Superiore. Successively, the Castiglionis continued to purchase property at Venegono from the Pusterlas for the rest of the century. At the death of first count in 1478, the castle was divided between his three sons. Throughout the first decade of the 16th century, as a consequence of the changing political scenario and the Castiglionis’ defection to the French side, the territory and the Venegono castle became the target of insistent forays by Swiss soldiery. At the return to power of the Sforzas in 1512, most Castiglionis were declared rebels and their property confiscated with the notable exception of Venegono Superiore, which remained in the hands of the family. And it was from here that the Castiglionis waged their vendetta against the Pusterlas: on 25 July 1515, Fioramonte Castiglioni, grandson of count Francesco, accompanied by a retinue of relatives, massacred the Pusterlas who had occupied the property that had been confiscated at Venegono Inferiore and had participated in the destruction of the stronghold at Castiglione Olona. Venegono Castle remained with various branches of the family until 1703, when the Castiglionis sold the castle to the painter adventurer Giovanni Saglier, friend of the princes Borromeo and seeking ennoblement. Parts of the edifice were progressively sold to various owners before it was definitely purchased in 1921 and 1926 by the Comboni missionaries who turned

it into the venue of their novitiate.

Built on the hill that dominates the town and the surrounding countryside, from Vedano to Binago and Venegono Inferiore, the castle has maintained a four-sided layout substantially similar to the original plan. Its aspect is the outcome of a neo-gothic restyling carried out by the Broggi family at the end of the 19th century and the Comboni missionaries after 1921. If the restorations have somehow maintained a vague castle-like structure, they have nevertheless severely compromised its medieval appearance, especially in the northern wing where the two imposing original towers are no longer visible, englobed by a modern construction.

Castiglioni coat-of-arms and heraldic decorative pattern of Francesco Castiglioni, mid-15th century. Venegono Superiore, castle, exterior of the western wing

173

1520, witch-hunt at Venegono

Between March and June of 1520, several women from Venegono Superiore were accused of witchcraft by an artisan from Monza. A trial was held in the castle with the collaboration of count Fioramonte Castiglioni and the alleged witches were accused of the death of the infant child of the count. After

months of hearings and prolonged torture some of the women “confessed� and accused each other of various crimes, while other held firm protesting their innocence. All the men involved were declared innocent, but seven women were burned at the stake on Monte Rosso, opposite the castle.

Minutes of the interrogation for the trial of the witches at Venegono Superiore, 1520. Milan, Archivio di Stato

174

VENEGONO SUPERIORE

The principal building blocks must have originally developed along a horseshoe alignment in the northern part of the quadrilateral, while in the south the large courtyard may have been closed-off, as in Jerago, solely by a wall curtain. The castle was surrounded by a moat and the main entrance was halfway along the western wing. The gate was surmounted by a tower, which originally featured the statue of two saints but which was transformed following 19th century restorations. Two additional towers rose in the corners of the northern wing, where a large neo-gothic tower now stands. Part of the large internal courtyard must have been endowed with a portico and an external stairway leading to the upper floors.

Traces of 15th century frescoes have been discovered on the western wing, providing clues as to how the castle’s original decoration must have been. In addition to the recurrent coat-of-arms bearing the lion rampant with castle accompanied by the letters FA – most likely referring to the first count Francesco – and the usual array of heraldic decorations, a very interesting figure of a philosopher or a jurist has survived. The splendid monochrome fresco of a bearded man with hood painted in an earthy hue of ochre may have been part of a cycle of mythical or allegorical figures not unlike those in other decorations at other Castiglioni castles or palazzos. It is not unlikely that around the courtyard was a row of portraits of famous men painted in a style similar to the much praised fresco cycle by Masolino da Panicale – an artist well known to the Castiglioni – at palazzo Orsini in Rome’s via Monte Giordano. The book that the man is holding with

his left hand and indicating with the right may allude to the outstanding library the Castiglionis kept at Venegono before the castle was sacked at the beginning of the 16th century which contained texts in Italian, Latin, French and Hebrew.

Although the castle does not come into direct contact with the town, a link to its first homes at the foot of the hill is provided by the church of Santa Maria Assunta, otherwise known as “alla Fontana,” which was probably built on a previous church, Santa Maria in castro. The small church keeps several frescoes dating back to the mid-16th century and the portraits of Giovanni Battista Castiglioni and Ippolita Figini, the patrons.

Figure of philosopher or jurist, mid-15th century. Venegono Superiore, castle, western wing

175

PUSTERLA MELZI CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Tradate (Varese) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Pusterla, Melzi STATE OF PRESERVATION: rebuilt CURRENT USE: headquarters of the Barbara Melzi Canossian Institute

Façade of the Barbara Melzi Canossian Institute, Tradate

176

The presence of the Pusterla family from Milan at Tradate goes back to the 13th century. In 1221 one Obizzo Pusterla was captain at Seprio, a proof of the family’s growing prestige in the area north of Milan. Tradate Castle was constructed, or to be more precise, reconstructed, by the Pusterlas in the 1350s. The church of Santa Maria di Castello was founded by Guglielmo Pusterla, the archbishop of Milan (1361-1370) who had been residing for some time at the papal court at Avignon and opposed by the Visconti. The nephew of the archbishop, Tommaso Pusterla, bishop of Brescia (1397-1399) founded a chaplaincy

that for centuries acted as the family’s religious aggregation centre alongside the Milanese church of San Sebastiano by porta Ticinese.

The Pusterlas’ relationship with the Viscontis was often stormy. In 1341, Francesco Pusterla was the main man behind a plot against Luchino Visconti that involved several relatives and other aristocrats. Seventy years later in 1412 it was once gain a Pusterla who actively took part in the murder of the very young duke Giovanni Maria Visconti. These events bear witness of prestige of the family, which was in a position to rally the Milanese aristocracy against the Visconti. The involvement in plots often entailed the physical elimination of the most powerful branches of the male lineage as well as the loss of significant portion of the landed estate, which was regularly confiscated. The political struggle at a higher level alternated with the interminable dogfights with the Castiglioni, as the two families for centuries clashed for the control of the Olona valley between Venegono Superiore and Tradate.

Yet throughout the 15th century the Pusterlas were still able to hold to hold their own against the might of the Sforza dukes. It was the powerful Pietro Pusterla, great nephew of the archbishop of Milan, who was pulling strings within the Ghibelline party and to intervene heavy handedly in the dukedom’s affairs following the murder of Galeazzo Maria (1476), imposing on the dukes the removal and beheading of Cicco Simonetta, the first secretary from Calabria.

Baldassarre, son of Pietro, was the founder of the lords of Frugarolo, Casalnoceto and Abbiategrasso, the family’s most important branch down to the 18th century. In the 17th century, the enterprising senator

TRADATE

Fabrizio Luigi Pusterla of the Tradate branch succeeded, through long-drawn hereditary suits that in many cases were downright fraudulent, to wrest from these Milanese aristocrats the ancestral estate at Tradate as well as the rights over the Santa Maria church. At the end of the 18th century, the marriage of the last female descendant of Fabrizio with a Melzi led to the passage of the entire estate to the latter. It would be Barbara Melzi (1825-1898), the last of her family, who established the Canossian institution at Tradate Castle.

The castle lies on top of Tradate height, dominating the borgo and the Olona valley below. The gaze is unimpeded and goes all the way to the Mt. Rosa chain. It is today a bulky 17th century building that conserves nothing of its medieval and renaissance past. It is therefore also quite difficult to reconstruct its original aspect which, however, may have been similar to the nearby fortification at Venegono Superiore. Its residual mediaeval vestige is the church of Santa Maria in Castello.

Heavily renovated in the neo-gothic style by Barbara Melzi, it conserves inside Tommaso Pusterla’s fine marble arch, made by master craftsmen from Campione and used as an altarpiece. The funeral monument is proof of the prestige the family had gained in the 14th century.

The existing decorations are noteworthy. Made towards the end of the 17th century, these decorations could be considered as an attempt on the part of the Tradate Pusterla branch to gain legitimacy over the Frugarolo branch. In the great hall of the first floor, and in a number adjacent rooms, the Pusterla commissioned a nearly complete cycle of frescoes aimed at glorifying the family: twenty-eight ancestors among the most prominent ones

between the 12th and 16th centuries are shown in faux niches. In addition there are two heroic equestrian figures in honour of the two ancestors who went to the crusades. In a room apart are celebrated the glories of the prelates of Pusterla House. The cycle was probably made by the Varese painters Salvatore and Francesco Maria Bianchi da Velate and Federico Bianchi.

As in Castiglione Olona, the castle must have been part of a system of family homes. The oldest houses at Tradate, along the slope that from the castle descends to the parish church, bear family-coat-of-arms as a proof that they once belonged to the Pusterlas. The residences alternated with the cloisters of convents, founded by family members, where many local noblemen were buried. The entire spur on which the castle rises was occupied by family residences, which most likely were built over existing structures possible watchtowers or fortified castle appendixes. Towards the end of the 15th century and for a part of the successive one, the Frugarolo Pusterla family owned palazzo Monteoliveto, now known as villa Citterio in the northern part of the castle. It was a sumptuous renaissance building that housed the art collection of chevalier Giovanni Battista Pusterla, buried at Santa Maria del Monte sopra Varese. Currently hosting the Lodovico Pavoni Institute south of the castle, Villa Sopranzi Stroppa, too, may have been at one time a Pusterla residence. Its castle-like appearance is the outcome of neogothic intervention by the Venetian architect Giuseppe Jappelli.

Little has survived of the splendid park that featured gothic-style glasshouses and pavilions with medieval towers.

177

CASTLE TRAIL 8

The “ever changing” castle landscape Between Ticino and Agogna in the second-half of the 15th century NOVARA GALLIATE CALTIGNAGA FONTANETO D’AGOGNA DIVIGNANO OLEGGIO

The foundation of Milan, in Manipulus florum seu Historia Mediolanensis ab origine urbis ad a. circiter 1333 by Galvano Fiamma, first-half of the 14th century. Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense

Novara’s claim as being a land of castles is indeed well grounded.

Sometimes located in tiny centres lost in sprawling expanses or in paddies, other times near larger towns, castles, towers and fortresses – of varying sizes and varying states of conservation – are aplenty in this area. And many more are those that have survived only on documents.

It would appear from documentary sources referring to the central period of the Middle Ages that the area of Novara was indeed brimming with castle, almost as if each town, village and the tiniest hamlet could rely on its own castrum. A clear indication can be found in Andar per castelli. Da Novara tutto intorno by Giancarlo Andenna, the book that continues to be to this day the most complete study on castles in Novara, where the map that visualises the presence of castles in the territory shows a density in terms of fortifications so thick as to leave practically no blank spots at all.

Investigating castles in the province of Novara you could be left with the impression to be dealing with an eternal element, almost as if castles were an unchanging, ever present, constant of that landscape. But it would be a wrong impression. Wrong because behind the presence of castles in a given place are often concealed significant changes in terms of material structures; and because the solidity of a given building often does not coincide with its functions, which may frequently change. The castle landscape in Novara and elsewhere, notwithstanding a longestablished continuity, is a landscape that is “in movement”. It becomes clear, in the case of the Novarese, that great changes took place in those years around the 1450s – changes occurring also elsewhere in other areas of the Dukedom of Milan. New fortresses were built where none existed before, but more frequently, though, they rose from the ashes of old fortified compounds in forms and function totally new. It is just these changes after 1450 that will provide the thread linking the castles we will be visiting in the westernmost part of the Novara province, in the area between Ticino and Agogna.

Stealing the limelight, as may have been expected, were, once again, the dukes. Consider, for example, their role in the 1470s at Galliate or the action taken for the construction of a fortress to guard the city of Novara. Yet, the dukes were not the only players that contributed to the renovation of the castle landscape in this area. The latter included, first and foremost, the local aristocratic families, chief among which where the Caccia, but also families from outside such as the Visconti and the Borromeo. In the second-half of the 15th century exponents of the aristocratic families commissioned brand new constructions or 179

THE “EVER CHANGING” CASTLE LANDSCAPE

took action to renovate existing ones with a view to creating fortified systems to protect their local interests. The Caccias, for example, in not very many years practically built four new castles in the territory between Caltignaga, Proh, Castellazzo, Mandello. This intensive construction drive led to the establishment of powerful local potentates often wielding influence beyond the local borders, de facto neutralising ducal authority itself. The large newly-built castle at Fontaneto, for example, served as Filippo Maria Visconti’s favourite base for his hunting forays in the Ticino valley. A leading figure in the Milan of the Sforzas, Filippo Maria succeeded in turning his stronghold at Fontaneto into a “reserved” area where outside interferences – including those from the duke and his envoys – were all but barred. Given the task of crushing illegal trade in the Novarese, Filippo Maria rather than going after the smugglers pounced on the opportunity to put himself at head of the smugglers, soon transforming his castle into a safe haven for them. His castle had become, in the words of a forlorn Ludovico il Moro – a place where «those who fraudulently run grain» were provided with «shelter and help.»

If the leading roles were played by the big aristocratic families, other players, too, should be considered. Large rural communities carried out significant projects, as in Oleggio, where the local residents, in the 1450s, obtained from Francesco Sforza (1450-1466) the authorisation to built an imposing fortified bastion, traces of which have survived to this very day. Though rather infrequent, this kind of communal dynamism nevertheless is proof that a one-way interpretation of the transformations underway at that time is not correct, because the changes occurring after 1450 were in response to diverse needs and the outcome of the action by a variety of different players. There is no doubt, though, that those transformations were the consequence of the changes brought about in the political scenario following Francesco Sforza’s View of Proh Castle, Briona

180

CASTLE TRAIL 8

181

THE “EVER CHANGING” CASTLE LANDSCAPE

ascent to power in Milan. Thanks to his force de frappe and a good marriage – with Bianca Maria, daughter of the last Visconti duke – but nevertheless threatened by a host of contenders, Francesco with great difficulty succeeded in consolidating his power through a series of accords with key figures and institutions within the state. With cities, first and foremost, because they were the key players in the material welfare of the dukedom. But also with large towns, as Oleggio, that wished to be protected against the privileges granted to cities. And, finally, aristocrats, such as Filippo Maria Visconti, owner of the stronghold at Fontaneto; the Caccias, who proved to be extremely useful to the Sforza during the conquest of Novara and taking of Pavia Castle, and were thus rewarded with the authorisation to build a castle at Caltignaga. Within the framework of his wider policy aimed at legitimising the government “from below,” Francesco Sforza was required to acknowledge a degree of autonomy to a variety of subjects, including those who had had little of it in the past. Fortifications such as those at Fontaneto, Oleggio, Caltignaga, Divignano thus became the tangible sign of the new political equilibrium that had been struck between the rulers and the ruled, a compromise that was one of the distinguishing traits of the age of the Sforzas. Those castles, in other words, are a telltale sign of a power compelled to be more “conciliatory,” willing, that is, to settle divisive issues through dialogue. Thus visiting the fortresses in northwest Novara becomes a way to understanding the development of the dukedom’s institutional structures.

Naturally we cannot ignore the dukes’ role. We see it, as mentioned earlier, in the castles at Novara and Galliate, where extensive restructuring took place under Galeazzo Maria (1466-1476) and Ludovico Sforza (1480-1499), sons of Francesco, when significant action was taken in a bid to give a degree of authority back to the prince. After these two fortresses, the castle trail takes us, along Statale 229, to the princely castles of the Caccias at Caltignaga and the Viscontis at Fontaneto. Not to be missed, along this route, is the Santissima Trinità church at Momo. Other shorter detours, would include for those who have time, other castles belonging to exponents of the Caccia family, such as those at Proh and Castellazzo, which are some of the best conserved in the entire province of Novara. At Fontaneto, the itinerary proceeds, along highly scenic secondary roads, to Cressa and, successively, to Bogogno, Agrate and Conturbia, before arriving at the other princely castle of Divignano, in the southern tip of the ancient “Borromeo state.” From here the Statale 32 road takes you back to Novara, where along the way it is still possible to admire what remains of the old wall constructed by local residents at Oleggio.

182

Giovanni Ambrogio De’ Predis (attributed), Ludovico Maria Sforza, in Codice Trivulziano 2167, 1496-1499 ca. Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana

CASTLE TRAIL 8

The Santissima Trinità church at Momo A land of castles, the Novarese is also land of country churches, baptisteries, oratories, rural chapels, often embellished by frescoes dating back many centuries. Noteworthy, is no doubt, the country church of San Michele at Oleggio made in the Romanic style. But among the many other possible options, worth a visit is the Santissima Trinità church at Momo, featuring a 15th century style that is line with the itinerary’s character. Located along the Statale 229 –

not far from the town of Momo in a northerly direction – the church probably dates to the 11th century, but what makes it special are its late 15th century frescoes.

Probably made by Francesco and Giovanni Cagnola, painters belonging to a bottega very active in 14th century Novara, the pictorial cycle covers great part of the edifice, and includes a Trinity, placed by the apse, thirty scenes dedicated to the Life of Christ, a large Judgement Day.

Francesco and Giovanni Cagnola (?), Judgement Day, end of the 15th century.

Momo, Santissima Trinità

183

THE VISCONTI-SFORZA CASTLE OF NOVARA

MUNICIPALITY: Novara TYPOLOGY: fortress FAMILY LINEAGE: Della Torre, Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with reconstructions CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, future museum and exhibition venue

The castle rises in the southwestern fringe of the oldest part of the city centre, near the corner of the walls that in Roman and medieval times enclosed Novara. Constructed not so much as a defence for the city but as a means to control it, the castle was the outcome of Novara’s absorption within larger dominations, and was in fact constructed by the Della Torre, the family that had conquered Milan and also Novara towards the end of the 13th century. According to Bernardino Corio, a historian of Eastern side of Novara Castle

184

the Sforza period, it was in fact Francesco Della Torre who in 1272 ordered the construction of a stronghold on the site of a palazzo that belonged to the Tettoni, a prominent family within the ranks of those who in town opposed the Della Torre faction. Before long, though, the Della Torre were ejected from the city and their castle ceased to be mentioned in the sources, reappearing only when the city once again came under the domination of external forces, that of Matteo Visconti (1287-1302, 1311-1322), lord of Milano, who also became master of Novara in 1290. It is at this stage that information is provided of the work that was carried out.

But as it turned out, the fortunes of the castle would once again be short lived. With the Viscontis temporarily out of the way and against a backdrop of furious clashes among city factions, the castle was, in 1315, destroyed, or as temporary sources say, “flat-

NOVARA North-western corner of the fortified compound at Novara prior to restoration

tened”, by the Guelphs led by Brusati and Cavallazzi. And not even the return to power of the opposite faction in 1322 – the pars Rotunda or the Ghibellines led by the Tornielli – could stop the rut.

In fact, the local government focused instead on defining, within the city layout, what would be a fully fledged Ghibelline quarter. A vast section of the city was consequently fortified and reserved for the men belonging to the pars Rotunda: no one opposed to them could live there nor alone be hosted. Those who did not belong to the faction but owned property in that sector of town was obliged by statute to sell, while the keys of all gates of the quarter were handed over to members of the Tornielli family, which was at the helm of the faction.

The re-foundation of the destroyed castle would occur sometime later with the return of Novara under Visconti rule in 1332. As the chronicler Pietro Azario reported, the new lord Giovanni Visconti (1339-

1354) redirected his attention on the site of the ruined fortress, ordering the construction of a «truly outstanding» castrum that was successively further strengthened by his successors Galeazzo II (1354-1378) and Gian Galeazzo (1378-1402, duke from 1395), who also constructed a new city stronghold, the so-called Cittadella, in the southeast.

After 1450, with the advent of the Sforzas, the castle developed as we see it today. Though some work was already underway during Francesco Sforza’s rule, the castle was all but transformed under his son, duke Galeazzo Maria. After having eliminated the Cittadella, considered of little utility in view for what it cost to maintain, Galeazzo Maria concentrated his attention on the castle. Starting from the early 1470s, under the supervision of Bartolomeo Gadio and other ducal engineers, the already existing nucleus of the fortress was enclosed by a merlon curtain wall, protected by a large 185

moat. Four towers, soaring some 40 fathoms above the moat, were constructed at each corner of the walls.

It was about these towers that Gadio wrote announcing their imminent completion in a letter to the powerful ducal secretary Cicco Simonetta in September 1476. To further strengthen the entrance gate, another tower, with ravelin, was built under Ludovico il Moro, while the entire complex was absorbed in modern times within a new bastioned city wall, which was successively dismantled in this stretch.

Used as a prison until the 1970s, the castle has undergone restructuring only recently. Stirring heated controversy, the restoration led to the raising of the modern tower visible above the entrance at piazza Martiri della Libertà – where the no longer existing ancient ravCommemorative inscription

by Galeazzo Maria Sforza, post 1476. Novara, ViscontiSforza castle

186

elin stood – and to the construction of a wooden pedestrian bridge on the southern side of the moat by the allea di San Luca. The fortified walls constructed during the Sforza age are in a poor condition, especially in correspondence with the corner towers, which no longer soar above the rest of the fortress. But walking around the walls, its impact continues to be impressive, especially from the southern and western sides looking from the park. At one time reserved for the arms bearers and as a weapons and munitions depot, the internal courtyard is currently undergoing restoration in view of the transformation of the buildings within into museum and exhibition venues. The site features traces of Visconti age buildings and even older structures, including Roman walls.

NOVARA

The beginning of the end for the Sforzas: the Battle of Novara Sforza and French cavalries clashing, in The Battle between the Duke of Milan and the King of France, Milan 1515 ca. Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana. The capture of Ludovico il Moro at Novara marked the end of the independence of the dukedom of Milan, which would then be ferociously contested by the French and the Spanish

Novara was where the Sforza’s unstable domination over the dukedom of Milan received it first, tremendous, blow. Up in arms against the government of Ludovico il Moro, the city opened its gates in 1495 to Louis d’Orléans, cousin of the King of France Charles VIII and a pretender to the ducal throne inasmuch as grandson of Valentina Visconti, daughter of duke Gian Galeazzo. The Sforza managed to retake the city four months later following a heavy siege. But the decisive act of the clash between the Orléans and the Sforza would take place in Novara shortly after. Early in September 1499, following the news of a twopronged Franco-Venetian attack, Ludovico il Moro left Milan, where Louis d’Orléans, now king of France as Louis XII, made a triumphant entrance on 18 October. Barely a few months were needed before the Milanese, strongly disliking foreign rule, recalled Ludovico, who reentered Milan in February 1500, gaining control of the city with the exception of the Sforza Castle, which remained firmly in French hands. In barely a few weeks, Milan’s churches were stripped of their treasures so that Ludovico could

hire Swiss mercenaries. An army was raised, and early in April 1500, outside Novara, the French and the Sforza army readied themselves for the decisive clash. But on the dawn of the day of battle, the confederate mercenaries the Sforza had so heavily counted on defected.

There remained but one option for the Moro: flight, which he first attempted disguised as a Franciscan and then as a Swiss foot soldier. On 10 April, recognised by his foes, he was transferred to France, where he died a prisoner in May 1508.

Most of the noblemen who had followed him in the battlefield were led to the Novara Castle and freed after paying large sums of ransom money.

At the same time, Milan with no men braced itself to face the fury of the French. The French Ambassador wrote: «all the houses of some quality of the Visconti were put under sack by the French and Italians in the Castle, who entered the houses without clamour and took the good and the best. More disrespect was shown for the houses of the Crivelli and the Landriani than to others, utmost disrespect for the married women belonging to the families mentioned above.»

187

GALLIATE CASTLE MUNICIPALITY: Galliate (Novara) TYPOLOGY: ducal residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Sforza, Trivulzio STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the public library, the Angelo Bozzola Museum for Contemporary Art and the Achille Varzi Museum Hall

188

To define Galliate Castle “big” may not be an elegant way to describe it but that is the impression you get especially if you observe it from piazza Vittorio Veneto, the beautiful piazza in the town centre whose northern end is entirely occupied by one of the sides of the fortification for a stretch of over 100 metres.

Not surprising, really, because at the time the castle was constructed the borgo of Galliate was substantial in size. Located in a strategic position along the road linking Novara and Milan, by a key junction along the Ticino, the settlement was in medieval times one of the most significant in terms of population in the entire Novarese.

And if on the one hand this position was the cause of contention between Milan and Novara, often with destructive consequences, on the other hand Galliate’s standing as a “frontier” town allowed the lively local community to obtain a rather unusual degree of autonomy, both fiscal and jurisdictional.

In 1448, the commune of Galliate was one of the very few to be in a position to negotiate the terms and condition of its allegiance to the future duke, Francesco Sforza. Galliate citizens successfully demanded the fiscal separation from Novara obtaining the promise that it would not be infiefed to other feudal lords – a promise the Sforza failed to maintain because Galliate a few years later became the feudal possession of the condottiero Ugolino Crivelli.

But the construction of this truly imposing castle cannot be ascribed to the lively local community nor to the town’s feudal lords. At the death of count Ugolino Crivelli (1469), Galliate became the feud of Battista da Montignana, a duke’s favourite, and then of Carlino da

GALLIATE

Varese. But by early 1473 lands and privileges had all returned under the direct control of duke Galeazzo Maria. Passionate about hunting, the duke found that the castle – as he had discovered in previous years – was the perfect base for his autumn hunting sprees along the Ticino. He thus began to focus in full earnest on the fortifications that existed at that time – a 14th century building that once belonged to the archbishops of Milan enclosed by a fortified wall belonging to the commune – and set about building a residence fir for a duke.

Work started between 1472-1473 with the digging of a canal that would bring water to the ditch that surrounded the site. But the entire process proved to be laborious as work was slowed down also as a consequence of the contrasts with the citizens of Novara. Information dating to 1476 provides us with an account of the nature of the work that was being carried out and the prominent engineers that had been called to carry it out. The old structures were drastically modified as the long four-sided fortified enclo-

sure we can partly still see today was built. The fortification was endowed with corner towers, while two more rose to protect the entrance gates on the piazza Vittorio Veneto south end and on the north side. In the internal space of the perimeter wall, a no-longer existing central building hosted the kitchens, a large number of rooms and halls, among which one reserved for the “game of the ball.”

The work was closely supervised

by Galeazzo Maria who just a few days before his death was ordering the architects to tear down walls, to open new windows, to raise ceilings and close openings in his private chambers so that – as he himself wrote – «one cannot see inside the lord’s room». As part of a broader initiative aimed at revamping and re-qualifying the village, the large piazza by the castle also underwent restructuring. Here the duke ordered the construction of the new parish church while plans were underway for the establishment of a Franciscan convent hosting friars who would cater for the spiritual needs of the prince and his court.

Front-view of Galliate Castle

View of the corner towers and of the moat at Galliate Castle 189

19th century structures that were added to the ancient castle, Galliate

However, the death of Galeazzo Maria, assassinated by Milan’s Santo Stefano church on 26 December 1476, signalled the end of the vast redevelopment plan.

Work on the castle picked up again under Ludovico il Moro who, however, preferred Vigevano rather than Galliate, thereby focusing his artistic initiatives in the former, which became his favourite residence. Infiefed, after the Moro’s fall, to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, lands and privileges were handed down, between 1525 and 1532, to the heirs of Carlo Sforza and successively to a son of the Moro, Giovanni Paolo Sforza, whose heirs maintained the property until the end of the 1960s. As testified in documents dating 1646 and 1699, in the two centuries following the death of the Moro, two ravelins

Side-view of the castle with ditch, Galliate 190

were built to strengthen the gates, and a number of new apartments along the perimeter walls, mainly on the southern side of the fortress.

The 1699 account describes the central keep as endowed with three turrets; this, as well as the ravelins, were demolished in the 18th and 19th centuries respectively.

A fate shared by the western side of the outermost wall perimeter.

What survives of the perimeter wall – with its corner towers and the large towers protecting the gates – is what remains of the residence envisaged by duke Galeazzo Maria. Owned by privates and by the municipality, the castle is the designated venue for the Angelo Bozzola Museum of Contemporary Art and the museum dedicated to Achille Varzi, the famous Galliate pilot.

GALLIATE

191

CALTIGNAGA CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Caltignaga (Novara) TYPOLOGY: princely residence FAMILY LINEAGE: Caccia STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with rebuilding CURRENT USE: private residence

192

As in other villages of the Novarese, in Caltignaga, too, the late medieval fortification rose from a pre-existing castrum, spreading across a larger site protected by a wall and featuring a dense row of houses, whose line of development can still be followed within the present day compact cluster of housing. And it was to this old fortification – already documented in the year 1000 – that 14th century sources continue to refer with the term castellaccio or «old rock,» indicating a stronghold in an advanced state of disrepair.

It was within this original fortification that the present stronghold was built by members of the Caccia family, one of the most prominent lineages in Novara. The exponents of this family, while owning the nearby strongholds of Proh, Castellazzo and Mandello, also played a key role in the castle development drive in the Novarese that started with the ascent to power of Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan from 1450. In the case of Caltignaga, the events taking place in Milan around the time of the duke’s enthronement are clearly reflected in the development of the castle. The construction of the fortified complex at Caltignaga was strictly connected with the activity of Giacomo Caccia on the side of the Sforzas. Giacomo, who was, with his brother Azzone, lord of the manor at Pavia, had joined the Sforzas right at the outset, giving him access to the highly strategic castle of Pavia and facilitating his conquest of Novara. As a reward the heirs of Giacomo Caccia, who had in the meantime died, obtained in 1449 the feudal investiture of Caltignaga and surrounding lands with the added benefit of a complete fiscal immu-

CALTIGNAGA

nity. It was immediately after this feudal investiture that work began on the construction of the fortress.

When it was ready, the castle was confiscated in 1497 because Giacomo Caccia’s grandsons had sided with the French and had thus entered into collision course with duke Ludovico il Moro. But barely a few years would pass before Obicino “The White” and Obicino “The Black”, the grandsons of Giacomo Caccia who had been banished by Ludovico, would regain possession of the castle.

With Ludovico defeated by the king of France Louis XII, who was thus proclaimed lord of Milan, the two Obicinos received the dividends for the loyalty shown to the French cause and regained their property, including the Caltignaga Castle, which, however, would ultimately be burned down by another French army in 1524 as a retaliation for the betrayal of the Caccias who had in the meanwhile joined the Sforzas and the imperial faction.

Caltignaga Castle, for those who stop to admire it by the parish church of San Salvatore in piazza XXV Aprile, appears like a villa with a large garden. The castle’s appearance is harsher and less genteel, though, if you go along via Marconi and then turn right on via Volta and to via Castello. Here you can see the western side of the complex, where the original 15th and 16th century aspect of the castle can be seen.

Along the tortuous way are a large number of constructions: house and cottages, some in precarious conditions, flock around the castle, almost concealing it from view.

Most of these constructions are relatively newer, but they provide a clue to the context where the castle was constructed starting from the

15th century.

In need of repair, the stronghold was restored in mid-16th century, the time when the internal courtyard and adjacent hall were readapted. What continues to be impressive is, above all, the western façade, with ditch, and dominated by the central tower that watches over the entrance. Standing out on the wall – which was recently strengthened – are two large, brick framed, arched windows with two lights. Just above the gate there is the Caccia family coat-of-arms bearing the inscription FORTITUDINIS NOSTRAE CALTINIAGAE.

Giovanni De Campo and workshop, San Secondo, second-half of the 15th century. Caltignaga, San Salvatore

Western-view of Caltignaga tower with the entrance tower 193

FONTANETO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Fontaneto d’Agogna (Novara) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti STATE OF PRESERVATION: rebuilding CURRENT USE: private residence

Entrance to palazzo nuovo.

Fontaneto d’Agogna, castle

Fontaneto Castle, 1636, detail from the so-called “Dulio map” 194

Located along river Agogna, just north of the town hall and the parish church of Santa Maria, Fontaneto Castle appears today much smaller than it was in the mid-17th century when it was described as a stern castle with towers – a castle, as a description of the time reads, «large and strong due to a very thick wall that could resist any kind of battery charge for protracted time.» Four circular towers stood at the corners while the moat that surrounded the walls was filled with «running water caused by springs.» Two other towers, both protected by ravelins, stood over the entrances at piazza Castello and piazza Annunciata.

Behind the construction of this imposing castle, starting from the second-half of the 15th century, was one of the most conspicuous

branches of Visconti House – the branch at the helm of which was the magnificent Filippo Maria, master of many lands and castles north of Milan, as well as one of the truly eminent figures of the Milan of the Sforza age, and not to be mistaken with the duke of Milan of the same name. Other defence structures had existed on the site of the Visconti castle. Near the monastery of San Sebastiano, founded at Fontaneto in the early part of the 10th century by viscount Gaiardo of Vercelli, there already was in the year 1000 a fortified settlement that contemporary documents called a «castrum.» There developed around that initial monastic fortified structure a town that over the centuries grew in size, most likely protected by a ditch and a pale. Lords of the village, as well as owners of most of the lands in the area, were probably, starting from the 11th century, the monks of the nearby important monastery of Santi Felino e Gratiniano, under whose control the village remained until the end of the 14th century, when property and privileges linked to Fontaneto were ceded by the monks to count Manfredo Barbavara, a leading figure in the entourage of duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Following the crisis that broke out after the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1402), Fontaneto was the object of a bitter struggle involving the Barbavara, the monastery of Santi Felino e Gratiniano, the powerful Tornielli family from Novara and the Visconti branch that included Filippo Maria, who ultimately overcame all pretenders only in the 1440s.

But what came into Filippo Maria Visconti’s hand was a possession depleted by decades of conflict.

With very few inhabitants, the town was reported to have hardly

FONTANETO D’AGOGNA

195

Francesco and Giovanni Cagnola, Heraldic frieze, prior to 1511, detail. Fontaneto d’Agogna, castle, palazzo nuovo. The coats-of-arms of the king of France Louis XII and of Charles d’Amboise can be recognised

196

100 residents (20 fires) as late as 1450; moreover, «Fontaneto does not possess a castle,» wrote a ducal official from Novara to duke Francesco Sforza. It would be up to Filippo Maria to turn Fontaneto into a favourite residence. His efforts to reconstruct the castle were such that two centuries later he continued to be remembered as the person who «reconstructed and gave new life to Fontaneto, a locality previously destroyed and deprived of buildings.» Built on the site of the old monastery of San Sebastiano, whose church was absorbed into the nascent fortress, the new castle must have been completed when Filippo Maria died there in 1482. Contemporary documents provide an outline of what had been done at that time

both for the residential quarters and the defences, namely the ditch and the ravelins to protect the entrances. The presence of the towers though cannot be confirmed.

Those towers that so much strike the imagination in later images and descriptions of the castle were most likely constructed under Filippo Maria’s widow Maria Ghilini and son Giovanni Maria.

Most likely the towers were completed in 1513, while it was Maria Ghilini who ordered the construction of a new residential wing in the southeastern part of the castle, the so-called palazzo nuovo, or “new palazzo,” which continues to this day to be the more interesting part of the complex thanks to the friezes – still visible today – that Maria Ghilini commissioned. At the death of Filippo Maria, the property was initially split up between the heirs of his first and second matrimonies. Other partitions followed in the successive decades, but the defensive walls remained intact, with its 15th century aspect, all the way to the early part of the 17th century. First lowered in 1639 to allow for the placing of cannons, the large towers were definitely demolished by order of the governor of Milan six years later in 1645. Together with the towers also razed to the ground were all the other defensive structures, which were mined and blown up with such carelessness that many residential buildings within the walled enclosure were severely damaged.

Consequently, the aspect of piazza Castello is today very different from what it must have looked like prior to the 17th century demolitions when there was the ravelin protecting the entrance of the fortress dominated by a high tower, whose image can be

FONTANETO D’AGOGNA

admired in the beautiful altarpiece

by Tanzio da Varallo kept at the parish church of Santa Maria. Also to be observed is the church of San Sebastiano on the left of the piazza: with its 17th century façade, it was built on the site of the much older and larger church that was linked to the monastery having the same name. 15th century frescoes can be admired both in the apse (St. Bartholomew) as well as in the loft (Annunciation, St. Blaise), probably made by Cristoforo Moretti, a painter whose Milan home was opposite the city residence of Filippo Maria Visconti, who, probably, commissioned the work. Next to the church, on the left, a street door leads to the

courtyard of palazzo nuovo, where the friezes commissioned by Maria Ghilini and her son Galeazzo Maria Visconti in early 16th century are still visible. Between angels, cornucopias and acanthus branches are 12 coat-of-arms of the Visconti family and of lineages closely related to it. Holding a central position are the coat-of-arms of Charles d’Amboise and of the King of France himself, Louis XII, as an indication of the political orientations of Maria Ghilini and her son who had sided with the French during the Italian wars. Moving back, it is possible to see what remains of the ancient ditch and reach the castle other old gate by piazza Annunciata.

Courtyard of the palazzo nuovo. Fontaneto d’Agogna, castle. On the right, the loggia sustained by brackets

197

DIVIGNANO CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Divignano (Novara) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Borromeo STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with rebuilding CURRENT USE: monumental edifice (private property)

The castle is located just off piazza Matteotti, the town’s central piazza, on the edge of hill that slopes steeply on the west in the direction of Conturbia and Agrate.

A tiny settlement throughout the 14th century and falling under the jurisdiction of the commune of Novara, Divignano at the beginning of the 15th century entered the sights of those families whose sphere of interests lay in the area of lower lake Maggiore. The village was first infiefed in 1413 by duke Filippo Maria Visconti (1412-1447) to Lancillotto and Ermes Visconti, masters of Castelletto and Sesto Calende, who in those years had extended their influence over a large number of localities around Novara between the Ticino and the Agogna. But in 1447 it was the same duke Filippo Maria – who had in the meanwhile come into contrast with the two Viscontis – who assigned Divignano and the surrounding lands to his treasurer Vitaliano Borromeo, probably as a payment for part of the conspicuous amount of money he owed the rich Vitaliano. The village and the castle thus became part of the vast and compact dominion that the Borromeo family had been consol198

corners of the quadrilateral, and a moat running along the side of the piazza. Three towers have survived, the one in the southwest, and the two in the northwest and northeast (overlooking the piazza).

The only original stretch of the late medieval wall connects these two towers along via Buozzi: it is bulky but elegant, characterised by the profiles of large chimneys and featuring brick framed arched windows. Demolished prior to the 18th century, the other three sides of the castle walls are today the outcome of successive rebuilding and were designed to strengthen the residential and agricultural function of the complex. The 18th century saw the restructuring of the internal courtyard, the transformation into a cottage of the area around the southwestern tower and, above all, the construction of the master wing that overlooks the piazza and is connected to the 15th century tower in the northeast.

Giovanni da Vaprio (attributed), The Unicorn coat-of-arms of the Borromeo, detail of the The Diploma of Filippo Maria Visconti, 1445. Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana

The 18th century wing of the eastern tower, Divignano

Eastern tower of Divignano Castle 199

DIVIGNANO

idating in those years around lake Maggiore, over an area that extended to the north to Canobbio and the Ossola valley and to the south to Divignano and the surrounding minor possessions, which were important for their woods and good land. Decisive in this and other initiatives by the Borromeo were the pre-existing interests of various Visconti branches. But as was the case with Arona, which had passed from a Visconti branch to the Borromeos, in this case too the transaction was facilitated by marriage: that between Franceschina Visconti, daughter of Lancillotto, former master of Divignano, with Filippo Borromeo, son of Vitaliano.

Described in a 1450 document as «modicum» («small»), Divignano castle was extensively redeveloped probably under Filippo Borromeo, who died in 1464, or under his son Giovanni. In those years the castle was enlarged and endowed with four towers, placed in each of the

THE FORTIFIED WALL OF OLEGGIO

MUNICIPALITY: Oleggio (Novara) TYPOLOGY: fortified wall of the town PERTINENCE: community of Oleggio STATE OF PRESERVATION: poor

In bricks and strengthened by large corner towers, the ancient walls of Oleggio – with their merlons, drainage wells and chemins de ronde – completely encircled the ancient borgo, corresponding to the present-day historic centre.

There were six gates, two of which still visible: to the east, along the descent of corte dei Mazzeri, and to the south, in the direction of Novara, by via Pozzolo. It is by the latter gate that a stretch of the original walls can be seen. The merlons may not have survived, while recent buildings have partially covered it, but the walls continue to impress, especially imposing in

View of the fortified walls of the borgo of Oleggio

200

the corner where the fine tower rises.

But more than its present appearance, what is truly interesting about the Oleggio fortress is the story behind its construction, making it almost unique among the fortifications in the area of Novara.

Constructed in the second-half of the 15th century, the wall was not the work, as was the case of the great majority of the fortifications in the region, of the duke or other aristocratic families. The walls of Oleggio were built by the local community, which was, it should be observed, one of the largest in the county of Novara in terms of population size.

In the late middle ages, Oleggio hosted a well frequented weekly market while the municipal port on the Ticino was key to the transit along the river. In 1450, a ducal official reported Oleggio has having just under 400 fires or homes, meaning that some 2,000 people

OLEGGIO

resided there, a level not reached elsewhere in the area. The first mention of the community’s efforts to build its own town wall dates three years earlier at the time Milan had opted for a republican form of government. In fact on 9 October 1447, representatives of the commune of Oleggio presented themselves before the captains of the Ambrosian Republic to seek the confirmation of certain fiscal and jurisdictional privileges and to discuss the possibility of fortifying the town. Oleggio, no doubt, was already endowed with a defensive system for the protection of its homes. At the centre of town, by the parish church of San Pietro, there was in fact an ancient castrum, a sort of fortified quarter dating back to the 10th century mostly inhabited by the Boniperti, the local aristocratic family. But what the local population now had in mind was something completely different: they wanted to build a thick bastioned wall that would turn the whole town into a single, large, fortress. Approved in 1447, the project was looked upon with favour by Francesco Sforza, who in 1455 granted tax breaks to the residents of Oleggio in view of the excellent task they had set themselves in constructing the fortification. But in 1473 the work had yet to be completed. Oleggio consuls wrote to the duchess saying that, indeed, work on the «wall had started»; it is likely that another decade would have been required before the wall was completed.

Damaged for the most part in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the original walls survive only in the stretch around porta Pozzolo. Past it and inside the historic centre coasting along the street on the right, it is possible to

follow from inside the line followed by the fortification all the way to the piazza where the parish church of San Pietro is located. In the other beautiful piazza on top of the hill – old market square where the present-day municipality is located – there is another tower.

The function of the “Tower of the Bagliotti,” as it is called, is unknown, although it was most likely made in the late middle ages, around the 13th or 14 centuries. The bulb-shaped covering was made in the 18th century.

Mazzeri Gate, Oleggio

201

CASTLE TRAIL 9

Letters from a battle From val d’Ossola to Giornico VOGOGNA DOMODOSSOLA GIORNICO

The Battle of Giornico (28 December 1478), in Luzerner Chronik by Diebold Schilling the Younger, 1513. Lucerne, Korporationsgemeinde der Stadt Luzern

Giornico is a town in Leventina valley, just a few kilometres north of Bellinzona, known not only among historians as the site of a famous battle, fought in December 1478. The standoff was between the army of the duke of Milan and a vastly inferior number of local Leventina soldiers and regular Swiss troops. The outnumbered forces won a famous victory in what was a repeat of the David vs. Goliath act, belittled or glorified, depending on the case, by vanquished or victors and their descendants.

Closer to us, in the 19th or 20th century, the event became a sticking point between Swissophiles and Italophiles and their related – and opposite – historiographies. Now that the white hot controversies have cooled, it is possible to reconstruct events in a more objective manner, thanks, above all, to the editing of the sources relating to the battle that started in the 1950s and has now culminated in a recent book, published in the Ticino ducale series, which collects a truly ample body of document kept in the Milan archives relating to the battle. All quotations in this chapter are drawn from that book.

As occurring with wars or battles nearer to us, an unavoidable aspect of the military clash at Giornico was what is today called the information front. Focusing our attention on the Milanese camp – which wins hand down the “battle of documents” – means we can today rely on hundreds of letters relating to the events and their context. It is, first of all, a tangible sign of the intensive exchange that took place between the government seat at Milan and the places where the Swiss had advanced. These letters provide accounts of the threatening advance of enemy forces; record orders concerning supplies; provide instructions as to how to thwart the foes, at the same time providing a plethora of other information, which was being exchanged at that time not only inside the dukedom.

While there still are voids and gaps, the reconstruction allowed by the documents of the two months preceding the battle at Giornico is very accurate. We thus now know that the court at Milan first received news about a possible Swiss attack early in November 1478, although from whence it would come – through the Ossola valley, Locarno, Bellinzona, Valtellina was still a matter of great conjecture. Voicing such concerns were ducal officials like the commissar at Bellinzona or the captain of Domodossola; feudal lords such as count Pietro Rusca from his castle at Locarno; or “allies” such as count Enrico Sacco, the master of Mesolcina.

But the response from the capital – where the situation for the past two years had been tense due to political instability – was anything but swift.

Duke Galeazzo Maria had died – assassinated – on 26 December 1476, leaving the throne to his infant child Gian Galeazzo (1476-1494). The 203

LETTERS FROM A BATTLE

reins of state power were thus held by the duchess Bona, his widow, aided by a Regency Council headed by the secretary Cicco Simonetta, in whose hand lay real power. Opposing Simonetta’s stranglehold on power were Milan’s most powerful families, including the deceased duke’s brothers, namely Ludovico il Moro (14801499) who, in fact, before long would take full control of government.

Preceded by the forays of the inhabitants of Leventina Valley and by irregular troops, “common people” not controlled by cantonal authorities, the Swiss troops arrived at Bellinzona, the town they had targeted, towards the end of November. Well armed and disciplined, the Swiss battalions proved no match for the hapless few who had been left to guard Bellinzona. The land was laid under siege and by December the great wall had been vanquished. Confederate foot soldiers then set sight on Lugano, and panic broke spread across lake Maggiore, Varese, Como. In Milan, the Regency Council at last decided to send out a large army, but mobilisation of so many men was slow and laborious. The army reached the frontline only as late as midDecember. Late, but nevertheless ready to put a good fight; ready – as the Bellinzona commissar Carlo da Cremona wrote in a letter – to fight a pitched battle that would refresh the glory of past victories against the Swiss and thus establish the «honour and glory of Italian military art».

Much to everyone’s surprise, the confederate troops, faced by the thousands of foot soldiers and knights that had come from the south, retreated without a fight. Between 15 and 16 December, besieged Bellinzona was freed, giving the impression that the ducal army had been victorious and that too without having to engage the enemy in battle. Bad weather – snow had started to fall – and the difficulty of the terrain, suggested the leaders of the Milanese army caution who advised the Regency to be satisfied with the liberation of Bellinzona and abstain from going further. But in Milan, the line of thinking of Cicco Simonetta and the other members of the Regency Council was exactly the opposite. The moneys spent for the largescale mobilisation had to be justified by victory – by a great and decisive victory – that would, in addition, also go a long way to boosting the regime’s reputation before both the subjects and the other powers in the Italian peninsula. Hence, the order to attack. It should be observed that this decision had met the unconditional approval of the citizens of Bellinzona who saw it as an effective punitive measure against the people of the Leventina valley and also as a means to get rid of the “friendly” troops, a forced cohabitation with would have led to the disruption of the quiet and peace of town life.

On Christmas Day, 4,500 Milanese soldiers decamped and marched in the 204

Confederate mercenaries cross the St. Gothard pass on an expedition in Italy, in Luzerner Chronik by Diebold Schilling the Younger, 1513.

Lucerne, Korporationsgemeinde der Stadt Luzern

CASTLE TRAIL 9

205

LETTERS FROM A BATTLE

direction of the Leventina valley. And in a few hours, victory was turned into disastrous defeat. Upon reaching the snowbound valley with great difficulty, the ducal troops were attended by some 200 o 300 Leventina men aided by a handful of regular Swiss troops. The balance of the forces on the ground was entirely tilting in favour of the Milanese but no full-pitched combat took place. Boulders sent rolling down from the heights surrounding the narrow valley caused panic among the advanced columns of the ducal army. The ensuing confusion led to flight, and the flight to disaster.

The soldiers who were left behind were easy prey for the Leventina men, while many more drowned in the Ticino. At the end, Milan lost 800 troops, a staggering number for the battles of the period.

So far, the bare facts. But there was a coda: while Bellinzona would fall to the Swiss only some twenty years later, the Regency Council, irreparably weakened by the disaster, lasted only a few months.

Much more, though, can be gleaned from the folds of the documents relating to the events that occurred at Giornico. And, indeed, some of the themes that emerge can be followed up with a visit to the fortifications that were in the thick of events in those fateful last few months of 1478 between val d’Ossola, Locarno, Bellinzona.

Vogogna Castle, in lower Ossola valley, is the first stage of the itinerary we have in mind. It can easily be reached by highway and the Statale del Sempione. At the time of the Battle of Giornico, the fortress, which was part of the vast possessions of the Borromeo family, did not lie along the “frontline� of the Swiss attack or potential invasion. But like other Borromeo possessions, it was located just behind the frontline, in those areas north of Milan that during conflict provided support to the troops in terms of supplies and auxiliary forces. In relation with the events of 1478, Vogogna provided a clue as to the importance of logistics even in 15th century warfare as amply testified in the extensive exchange where the central government Apollonio Pessina, Sassi grossi, 1937 circa, model.

Ligornetto, Pessina House

206

CASTLE TRAIL 9

Confederate troops at the St. Gothard pass, in Luzerner Chronik by Diebold Schilling the Younger, 1513.

Lucerne, Korporationsgemeinde der Stadt Luzern

and government officials and feudal lords discussed the crucial issue of supplies, without which no military operation would be successful. A poignant case in point are the letters to the counts Borromeo – Vitaliano and his brother Giovanni – written between November and December. The counts are solicited to provide ships for the transportation of troops on lake Maggiore; to allow unhindered passage of food supplies to the troops; to provide wheat, flour and bedding straw. And the coordination centre for these operations was Vogogna, alongside the other Borromeo castle at Arona. On 22 November when rumours of an enemy offensive were becoming more insistent, the Regency asked count Vitaliano Borromeo to stay in the family fortress in the Ossola valley on a stable basis so that he could rally the soldiers who were on their way there to defend the threatened borders.

Further north, Route 33 takes you to Domodossola, but not before strongly recommending a stop at Villadossola to visit San Bartolomeo church, one of the most significant Romanic buildings of the Ossola valley. The most important urban centre in the valley, the fortified borgo of Domodossola was one of the hot spots during the events of 1478. Singled out as a possible enemy target because the lands – as a local captain wrote – «was not sufficiently protected […] and the passes not endowed with sufficient men to protect them». The extensive correspondence between Milan and Domodossola, however, reveal more than just the operative orders to counter the enemy attack. It has been possible, for example, to gauge the impact of the possible “betrayals” of the local populations. The town and the valley ran the risk of falling not by military conquest but because local inhabitants were tempted to consign themselves to the invaders. Ambrogio Longhignana, who had been appointed commander of the defence forces, wrote to Cicco Simonetta towards the end of November to report that the confederates were indeed sending out alluring messages to the local population, urging them to surrender.

What caused most concern, however, was not the local people changing sides, but rather the existence of secret agreements or pacts that the population of the Leventina valley and the citizens of Domodossola could have signed as a clear indication of their political independence from central authority, which was consistently weak across 15th century Europe. Around 26 November, the rumour mill started churning out news that the inhabitants of the valley and Domodossola had signed an agreement with the «Tartonics». In return, the confederates pledged they would not attack the valley and the local population promised they would not allow ducal 207

LETTERS FROM A BATTLE

troops across the alpine passes should they wish to attack the confederate troops. Also similarly tempted were the people of the nearby Lavizzara valley, whom the Swiss had asked to «not give way to the ducal troops», giving in return ample assurances that no attack would be carried out against the valley. It was count Pietro Rusca who was entrusted with the task of reminding those people the rationale of belonging to a state: such agreements – he wrote in a letter – were illegal because «they have masters whose wishes they must adapt to.»

Our journey continues in fact in the direction of count Pietro Rusca’s castle at Locarno along an alpine stretch that takes about an hour to travel.

Leaving Domodossola, it is necessary to follow the indications to Vigezzo valley and Locarno: the Statale 337 road climbs up to Santa Maria Maggiore, a great place to stop, alongside nearby Craveggia, for those wishing to take a two-day break. The next stop is the Swiss border, before going down the highly scenic via delle Centovalli to Locarno.

Here, just south-west of the historic town centre, stands Rusca Castle that during the Giornico crisis had risked to be overrun by the invaders from over the mountains. And from here, through the months of November and December – often in the throes of «utter desperation» as some witnesses recalled – the count wrote incessantly to Milan. Offering and above all beseeching help, but also providing precious information about the enemy’s movements. Because from his fortress at Locarno – which was at the heart of a feudal estate that extended to adjacent valleys – Pietro was in a position to send out spies to the enemy camp. And in those territories, especially in Leventina, count Rusca could rely on «loyal friends,» on men of «his» who could refer with accuracy the intentions of the «Germans».

But his letters, though, were not exclusively addressed to Milan. A careful examination of the count’s correspondence for the end of 1478 brought to the surface the widespread “network of information” that lay behind a major military effort such as the one that culminated at Giornico. News and intelligence does not travel from the centre to the periphery and vice versa. Information does, in fact, also move horizontally between peripheral venues eluding the filter of central government. Though often endorsed by the government, such exchange occasionally envisaged strategies in contrast with those imposed from above. Feeling under «very great danger,» Pietro by early December decide the time had come to seek help not only from the duke – which was late in coming – but to directly entreat «the whole of lake Maggiore, the country church at Valtravaglia (controlled by his brother Giovanni), Ambrogio Longhignana», the commandant of the foot soldiers sent out to defend Domodossola. In particular he asked Ambrogio to leave Domodossola and rush in the defence of Locarno. Clearly, it was a request that caused Longhignana, as he would later write to the duke and duchess, some embarrassment. «I reminded him – he wrote – that what he demanded could not in anyway be fulfilled without your excellencies’ express consent.»

Exiting Locarno and proceeding along the lake to the Magadino plain, the road leads to the imposing fortifications of Bellinzona, the conflict’s main flashpoint. Placed under siege for the entire first-half of December, Bellinzona was able to resist notwithstanding a serious shortage of food, repelling the enemy which had been sustaining attacks with a variety of devices, including especially constructed ladders. As may be clearly imag208

CASTLE TRAIL 9

Milanese handicraft, Rotelle, prior to 1478. Lucerne, Historisches Museum.

Following the defeat of the Milanese. Confederate troops gathered the enemy shields that had fallen on the ground

ined, a significant portion of the letters that has come down to us was written from or to Bellinzona. The large quantity of information emerging from those documents, at the end, reveal another interesting aspect of a campaign that mobilised thousands of soldiers but did not involve a pitched battle and ended in a ruinous flight rather than in full battle. Those documents ultimately reveal that waging war, besides men and things, affects the spirit: and it is there that battles are either won or lost. The mere rumours of an imminent invasion of Swiss troops caused great fear among the people of Bellinzona, causing many to flee, and concern among ducal officials about mass betrayals. Officials were perfectly aware that the appearance of soldiers from Milan was crucial in providing comfort to the local population and thus avoid dangerous defections. As the Bellinzona commissar wrote to the duchess: «the moment reinforcements appear the land will be on our side.» «To be seen» by friends and foes alike was not an accessory part of the clash but crucial for the outcome of the battle. «I took the decision to advance until I was seen by the besieged in the fortress of Bellinzona, to give them courage,» Pier Francesco Visconti, commander of the ducal army, wrote on 13 December. Alongside with the desire to inflict damage to the enemies, the desire to «appear before the eyes of the subjects» to uphold one’s «reputation,» was, on the other hand, the reason that convinced the Regency Council to push ahead beyond Bellinzona into the snowbound Leventina valley.

Those who wish to tread the steps of the army all the way to Giornico will notice that on the left slope of the valley, just before the town, the heights from which were hurled down the boulders that led the Milanese to their doom. A defeat that brought not just material damage but unredeemable «shame.»

209

CASTLE AND STRONGHOLD OF VOGOGNA

MUNICIPALITY: Vogogna (Verbano Cusio Ossola) TYPOLOGY: fortress FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza, Borromeo STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact with rebuilding CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, exhibition venue (castle)

View of the wall and tower at Vogogna Castle

210

A maze of narrow streets and old houses, the historic centre of Vogogna has substantially maintained its aspect of antico borgo.

The overall effect is embellished by elegant aristocratic homes, such as Biraghi House, and the impressive palazzo pretorio dating back

to the 14th century. At the highest point of the historic centre there rises the local castle with its cylindrical tower that plays hide and seek among the town’s old houses.

A little further up, on the slopes of Mt. Orsetto are the ruins of another fortification, the so-called rocca, a stronghold that is of the same age with the castle and was probably connected to it.

Of secondary importance up to the 1200s, Vogogna’s fortunes changed decidedly for the better in the following century. By the first decades of the century the local population had grown significantly and walls – no longer extant – had been constructed enclosing the settlement.

The palazzo pretorio was built in 1348, while the communal statutes were proclaimed in 1373 with rules and regulations that well testify the town’s position as a market and a place of transit. It is highly likely that the castle and the stronghold above were constructed around those same years in mid 14th century, with the former being probably linked to the town walls and the latter to the castle by another wall so as to ensure that the castle couldn’t be encircled from above.

Towards the end of the century, Vogogna had become a well established entity within the Sforza dominion. After years of strong instability and communal strife, the borgo emerged as the administrative centre of Lower Ossola valley, venue of a vicarage with ample jurisdiction.

The castle’s legacy is closely linked to the repeated attacks launched on it by the Swiss in the 15th and early part of the 16th centuries. The fortress was attacked by confederates between 1410 and 1411 and again in 1415. Other attacks were sustained in the following decade and in the second-half of the centu-

VOGOGNA

ry. The castle was involved in the skirmishes ensuing the Battle of Giornico (1478), playing an even bigger role in the campaign launched in the Ossola valley some years later in 1487 when it became the key centre for the dukes’ army defence against the advance of the Swiss troops. By the second-half of the 15th century, however, the castle was no longer under the direct jurisdiction of the duke but had been infiefed to the counts of Borromeo who, besides the city, now controlled the entire lower valley, which was part of the vast state the powerful family had been consolidating in those years around lake Maggiore.

The feudal investiture to the counts Borromeo of 1447 was strongly opposed by the locals who did not approve being subjected to the duke indirectly through the mediation of new feudal lords.

With the death of the last Visconti duke, the people of Vogogna formally requested the republican government that had been installed in Milan to have the investiture quashed. Initially accepted, the request was nevertheless ignored so that in 1449 Vitaliano Borromeo’s seigniory over the town and its district was renewed. Thus began the long history of Vogogna under the Borromeo, a connection that would last throughout the modern age, interrupted only by the confiscation carried out by Ludovico il Moro in the 1490s and by the French during the Italian wars.

Damaged during the occupation of 1515 by Swiss troops backed by the inhabitants of upper Ossola valley, the fortress under the Spanish lost

its role as key military bastion. The downgrading led to a progressive decay of its material structures, which were nevertheless recently restructured. The castle’s entrance, flanked by the unmistakable rounded 14th century tower, can easily be reached following the many roads that lead up to it from the town below. Once inside there are three courtyards arranged at differing levels. From the largest and highest courtyard it is possible to gain the best view of the fortress’ main structure: a bulky central body flanked by the rounded entrance tower and a second, square-shaped, tower. The view afforded from here of the valley and town is splendid, but even better is the scenery form the stronghold above, which can be reached by foot along a short but steep path.

View of the stronghold, Vogogna

211

212

View of piazza Mercato at Domodossola with access at via Briona

Domodossola

Located along one of the key routes connecting the Po plains and the lands north of the Alps, Domodossola was an important centre already during Roman and early medieval times. A castle was most likely constructed as early as the 6th century atop of nearby Mattarella hill, while down valley the village was home to the country church from which radiated the Christianisation of the entire area. It was by this church – enclosed within a fortified area, the so-called castrum novum – that rose in the 10th century a building belonging to the bishops of Novara, designated to be the administrative centre for the vast landed estate they owned in Ossola valley. And it is also likely that around this period Domodossola was already hosting that weekly market that was documented in papers dating to just after the year 1000.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the Novara bishops’ land ownership assumed the feudal character that would be a constituent element of their presence in the area over the next three centuries, when the estate was absorbed into the Visconti domain. The status quo was often disrupted by emerging local ambitions such as those embodied, for example, by the counts of Castello, for the intricate combination of conflicting interests between bishops, princely families and, successively, also the municipality of Novara, could be explosive. Against this complex backdrop, the lords of Milan first succeeded in gaining control of Domodossola in 1358, consolidating their power over the town and the entire upper valley only in the 1480s after a bitter struggle with local factions.

The decades under the Visconti-Sforza dynasty after 1450 did not turn out to be a peaceful period for the town. Throughout the 15th century Domodossola and the valley was constantly under the threat of invasion

by Swiss troops, which did take place several times during the century.

That the town could fall in Swiss hands was not only a concrete fact but it was something that the local population, or part of it, strongly hoped for. The year 1410 coincided with the first wave of clashes that would protract to the 1420s during which time the castle at Mattarella was destroyed and Domodossola fell under Swiss control several times. This did not occur during the Battle of Giornico in 1478, but even on that occasion the local population had been strongly tempted to surrender to the Swiss. A further attack took place nine years later led by the brother of the bishop of Sion. Victory at Crevola of the Sforza army put a stop to Swiss ambitions over the Ossola valley for the time being, before they were again rekindled during the Italian wars of the early part of the 16th century. Swiss forays in the dukedom would finally cease when Milan passed under Emperor Charles V.

213

DOMODOSSOLA

Castle trail 9

SACRO MONTE CALVARIO

MATTARELLA CASTLE MUNICIPALITY: Domodossola (Verbano Cusio Ossola) TYPOLOGY: fortress FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti STATE OF PRESERVATION: historical traces; part of the Sacro Monte Calvario rises from the site of the old castle

The castle rises at the top of Mattarella hill, dominating the town and the valley. Early medieval in origin, the castle passed under the control of the bishops of Novara around the year 1000, a clear sign of the power exercised by the prelates on the town below. A venue for the bishops’ representatives and often for the prelates themselves, the fortress was renovated and strengthened several times, espe-

Ruins of the walls Mattarella Castle, Domodossola

Part of the town wall with tower, Domodossola 214

cially in the early part of the 14th century during the clashes between bishop Uguccione and the townspeople. Handed over to the masters of Milan in 1358, it continued to be manned by a ducal garrison until 1415 when a particularly vicious Swiss attack destroyed most of its structures, which were never again repaired.

In the 18th century, the ruins of the old castle were absorbed by the Sacro Monte, which was constructed on the mountainside. What remains of Mattarella Castle can be reached by foot along the sacred itinerary, featuring a succession of chapels, that starts from via Mattarella. Those who consider the steep climb too daunting may take a local bus or drive up to the top of what is today called Calvary.

Past the last chapel, visitors can admire fragments of the ancient walls and the large central tower of the castle which was probably constructed in the 13th century. From here the view of the valley below is outstanding.

DOMODOSSOLA

215

TOWER AND FORTIFIED WALLS

MUNICIPALITY: Domodossola (Verbano Cusio Ossola) TYPOLOGY: castle tower and fortified wall FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: the tower is private property

Piazza Mercato, Domodossola

Domodossola, 1710.

At the centre the castle with wall enclosure 216

A castrum at the locality of Domodossola, located under the fortress that already existed since a long time atop of Mattarella hill, is first mentioned towards the end of the 10th century. The fortified area spread along the southwestern sector of the present-day historical centre, which at that time featured the country church as well as residences and the building belonging to the bishops of Novara. At the beginning of the 14th century, the construction of an imposing wall to protect the town – demanded by the townspeople but strongly opposed by the bishops – led to the inclusion of the old fortification within the new system of defensive walls. But it would be only in the following century, with the destruction of Mattarella Castle, that the fortification would be radically

transformed in order to enhance its military function. In the second-half of the 15th century, the dukes of Milan ordered the demolition of the country church (ever since transferred to its current location), the canon’s residences and all the other houses located in the area. The fortress, with its new walls and four corner towers, was surrounded by a moat and adapted to allow for the use of artillery.

Enclosed within strong walls and endowed with a new fortress made in the first-half or the 15th century, Domodossola indeed appeared as a puissant “war machine,” capable of resisting the advance of invaders from the north. 19th century demolitions – dictated by the town’s industrial growth – strongly impacted the fortified compound, obliterating most of its military apparatuses, now practically unrecognizable for most visitors. The recently restored imposing tower by piazza Rovereto is what remains of the old castle.

Turrets of the old town wall have survived along via Monte Grappa and via Facchinetti, a short distance from the current country church.

Along via Briona, there is what appears to be a 13th century tower called the Vescovo, or Bishop’s, torre, a proof that this part of town, at one time, featured these types of constructions. The belfry of the Santi Gervasio e Protasio church was the outcome of the transformation of another of such towers. The entire city centre, though, deserves to be visited: truly outstanding are piazza Mercato, with its medieval porticos, and the nearby palazzo Della Silva. In the Santi Gervasio e Protasio church there is a famous painting by Tanzio da Varallo besides a Romanic architrave on which are carved histories of the life of Charlemagne, probably taken from the original pieve church.

DOMODOSSOLA

217

CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEL CASTELLO

GIORNICO CASTLE MUNICIPALITY: Giornico (Canton Ticino) TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: da Giornico STATE OF PRESERVATION: historical traces; the Santa Maria del Castello church is located on the castle’s original site Separated from the historic centre of Giornico from the Ticino, the church of Santa Maria del Castello rises on the right side of the valley.

Because of its dominant position, it is immediately recognisable among View of the Santa Maria del Castello church, Giornico

218

the sacred buildings of the tiny ecclesiastical quarter that developed on the right of the river.

Around the church, clearly visible to all those coming from town, are the ruins of the castle that at one time stood there – traces and fragments of once powerful walls whose purposes are now lost; of the princely residence feint echoes of which survive in the name of the Santa Maria church.

Probably already existing in the 11th century, the fortress was enlarged between 1160 and 1176 by one Bernardo da Giornico belonging to the most powerful family at Leventina. An imperial avogadro, Bernardo was on the side of Fredrick I Barbarossa,

GIORNICO

A public house along the Gottardo Deserving mention among the many monuments at Giornico is no doubt Casa Stanga, a group of 15th century edifices located within the old city centre.

Presently the venue of the Leventina Museum – keeping a collection of religious furniture as well as farming objects and clothing – the houses once acted as a residential complex and inn. Its beautiful façade, decorated by Giovanni Battista Tarilli and Domenico Caresana around 1589, depict the coatof-arms and family insignia of the many illustrious figures who in those years found shelter there.

The courtyard of Casa Stanga, Giornico

whose support he sought in order to free himself from the demands of the Milan cathedral chapter that claimed seigniorial rights over the valley. With Fredrick’s defeat in the hands of the Lombardy League at Legnano in 1176, Bernardo had to acknowledge the supremacy of the church of Milan. Ultimately, though, it was the empowerment of the local communities that strongly undermined the power of the da Giornico. Taking off their seigniorial garbs, the male descendants of the lineage emerged as leading figures at a local level becoming prominent notaries, judges, representatives of the commune or the Milanese chapter.

But what occurred to their castle in the final phase of the middle ages is less known. In 1276, Giornico Castle hosted the bishop of Milan Ottone Visconti, who sought refuge there in the course of his epic struggle with the Della Torre. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, the Santa Maria church underwent significant restructuring although it is not known if the adjacent princely residence was still in use or if, following the fire of 1370, it was defi-

nitely on the way down. The castle was in any case completely destroyed in 1518 by the Uris who had, in the meanwhile, gained control of Leventina valley.

Spared from destruction, the church of Santa Maria is the single most outstanding element of the original castle compound. With two apses – the oldest being the one in the south – the church’s perimeter walls are decorated with View of Attone tower, Giornico

219

A unique island along the Ticino Many bridges now cross the Ticino at Giornico, joining the old part of town with the right slope of the valley. Recorded in mediaeval documents, the oldest two are located where crossing the river is easiest: by the island that divides the river in two halves. Sufficiently large to house buildings, the island claims a unique record: it is the only inhabited island along the entire course of the Ticino, from the source to the Po. On the island were mills, farriers’ shops, sawmills. And even one of the oldest chocolateries in the area.

The medieval bridge on the Ticino, Giornico

lesenes and Romanic arches. On the right of its simple façade, by the apse, there is the bell tower, probably constructed around the 12th century. Inside, the church is divided in two naves by an arch couple and endowed with a beautiful 16th

Santa Maria del Castello, Giornico. The ruins of the old castle are visible on the foreground

220

century caisson ceiling, which was successively rearranged. But truly outstanding are the frescoes on the northern choir made – as can be read in a 1448 inscription – by artists belonging to the bottega of the da Seregno. On the vault is a

GIORNICO

Nicolao da Seregno, Trivultus, 1478. Giornico, San Nicolao

Christ in majesty with symbols of the Evangelists, while in the lower bands are a large St. George in the process of killing the dragon, a Crucifixion and a series of Saints (behind the last two on the left).

Among these, we find, kneeling, the client.

Just below the church of Santa Maria, in the small ecclesiastical quarter that includes the parish church of San Michele and annexed cemetery, there is the church of San Nicolao, or San Nicola, which must be visited by those who come to Giornico. One of the most important Romanic monuments of the Ticino, the edifice goes back to the 12th century.

The external walls, as well as the apse, are decorated on the outside by little arches, while the façade is divided in three parts by high

lesenes joined by blind double arches. The two portals – the one on the façade and the other on the right of it in the southern side – are decorated by splendid zoomorphic and anthropomorphic sculptures.

Immediately on the left upon entering, there is a 12th century baptismal pool probably coming from the nearby parish church.

Outlines of probably 13th century frescoes – a Last Supper, a St. Christopher – can be seen along the nave. While the splendid frescoes on the apse, made by Nicolao da Seregno, are definitely 15th century (1478). Among the paintings is a depiction of the Trinity in the shape of a Trivultus, that was successively banned. Below is the crypt with its truly outstanding capitals decorated with geometrical and figurative patterns.

221

CASTLE TRAIL 10

Seeking control of the pre-alpine valleys The ambition of the old aristocracy ORINO INDUNO OLONA VICO MORCOTE LOCARNO CANNERO RIVIERA

Ducatus mediolanensis finitimarunque regionum descriptio, detail, in Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius, 1572

At the back of Campo dei Fiori, between lake Verbano (or Maggiore) and Ceresio (or Lugano), the alpine and pre-alpine valleys north of the Seprio have maintained, over the centuries, their two-pronged vocation as a borderland and as an arterial roadway for transalpine trade. Partly coming under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Como dioceses and partly under that of the archdioceses of Milan, the valleys were at one time fiercely contended between the powers prevailing in the two municipalities before becoming the border dividing the Visconti-Sforza dukedom with the Cantons forming the Helvetic Confederation. The administration and management of these highly complex territorial entities was made even more difficult not only by their distance from Milan, the seat of government, but also by the presence of a vast array of local players: the towns in the valley bottom along the lake shores (Locarno, Luino, Laveno, Lugano), which had developed and grown wealthy thanks to trade and the contribution of a lively albeit divided aristocratic class; the valley communities jealous of their privileges and in contrast with each other and against the main provincial towns and the central power; the aristocracy, often hailing from elsewhere, whose task of pacifying and controlling the valleys ended up exacerbating the conflicts and whose agenda of territorial expansion was a constant thorn in the side of the nascent Visconti regional state.

A group of long-established influential families exercised a de facto rule over the land: the Rusca, Ghibelline masters of Como whose overriding ambition was to create their own state in the valleys of the dioceses of Como; or the Mandelli of Como, who wielded influence in Milan and were based in the rich lands of the Po valley. The already complex situation was even further complicated by the installation on the part of the Visconti and Sforza dukes of nonautochthonous noblemen who were created feudal lords in a number of key estates: the Borromeo, the fabulously rich merchants from Tuscany and Padova that had been recently ennobled, at Arona and on the islands of the lake as a buffer against the worrisome hegemony of several branches of the Visconti family; the Sanseverino, an ancient Neapolitan family of Norman stock that had been hired by Filippo Maria Visconti for his military campaigns, infiefed in the Sottoceneri area to counter the overwhelming influence of the Rusca in the territory between the Lario and the Ceresio; the Cotta, a famous Milanbased family of military captains, in Valcuvia so as to create a buffer fiefdom along the key road connecting the castle of the archbishopric of Angera and the territories of the Como dioceses.

Between the 14th and 15th centuries each of these families took action to construct or restructure a series of castles and watchtowers in the valleys that served to protect mountain passes, communication routes and lakeshores.

Some of these fortifications were probably built upon previous existing defensive systems, often going back to late Roman times. Nearly all the castles and 223

SEEKING CONTROL OF THE PRE-ALPINE VALLEYS

strongholds in this area were damaged by Swiss troops between 1510 and 1515.

Memorable was the destruction of the Travaglia stronghold at Luino. Confederate troops also succeeded in devastating the mighty fortifications of Locarno Castle in 1531.

The castle at Cuvio was soon transformed into a villa, like that at Frascarolo.

Other fortifications were abandoned, soon overcome by the underbrush and the encroaching forest. A pale idea of how these castles were in their heyday can be given by the vestiges of Orino castle on the nortwestern slopes of Campo dei Fiori near the entrance to Valcuvia, from where this leg of our journey begins.

With a well identifiable common denominator in historical and landscape terms, this itinerary across a wide territory cannot be carried out in a single day.

Three sub-itineraries could be envisaged along the three Varese valleys – Valcuvia, Valganna and Valtravaglia – overlooking respectively the Sottoceneri and the Ceresio and the Sopraceneri and the Verbano.

From Orino to Induno Olona through the Valganna (approximately 35 kilometres) You can reach Rancio by choosing two roads: one along the valley bottom past Cuvio, where there is the mighty building at one time the castle and residence of the small court of the Cotta family. After Rancio the road zigzags to Bedero and enters the Valganna by the abbey of San Gemolo. The small Benedictine coenobium, where a local saint is worshipped, was at one time the administrative centre of a vast landed possession that included the Valganna, part of the adjacent Marchirolo and Valcuvia valleys, nearby Induno Olona and reached Malnate. Built upon a grant conceded to the Sforza around 1477, the abbey was ceded to the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan by the last abbot Gian Angelo Medici, later to become pope Pius IV. Vistors can admire here the Madonna

Rancio Valcuvia

Typical house with loggia at Rancio Valcuvia

224

Off the castle trail, worth a stop is no doubt the small locality of Rancio, perched on the northern slopes of Campo dei Fiori. The town features many of the typical multi-storeyed houses with loggias facing the south, the ruins of a Humiliati monastery featuring 15th century columns (via Mazzini); a 17th century building (villa Velati on via Cavour) with architectural features that are more late Renaissance than Baroque; and, by the woodlands just outside the town centre, old walls, most probably the ruins of a previous fortification. In the middle flows the river that plunges into a ravine where the old mill once stood. The bridge that crosses the river at that point is the perfect spot to contemplate in tranquillity the old houses of the centre.

CASTLE TRAIL 10

225

SEEKING CONTROL OF THE PRE-ALPINE VALLEYS

della Misericordia, a 15th century mural painting, and can walk to the sacred fount, the place where St. Gemolo was martyred, and the small local lake. Once out of the Valganna, the itinerary takes you, past an industrial district, to Induno Olona, where edifices in the art nouveau style are a recurrent feature. Just before entering town, a road climbs up to Frascarolo, where the local castle is located. However, those wishing to visit the villa of the Marignano Medici, with its towers, will need to travel further south along Olona valley on the newly constructed viaducts that link Varese to the highway. Looking back at the green flatland, with cypresses and the bulky tower on the background and the delicate turrets on the foreground that frame the painted villa, you are actually be surprised to see a corner of Tuscany in Lombardy and mistake the more famous Florentine Medicis with the local branch of the family.

From Induno to Morcote around the Ceresio (approximately 35 kilometers) In our hunt for things from the Renaissance, just off the historic centre of Induno there is the church of San Pietro in silvis that conserves 15th century pictorial cycles not of outstanding quality but nevertheless a palpable sign of the religious devotion of the local population. To hasten thing along, it is necessary to give the beautiful 16th century Cicogna di Bisuschio villa but a cursory glance and focus instead on Cuasso al Monte. Here the valley opens out and the Ceresio appears before our eyes. On the mountains west of the valley there once stood a powerful fortified enclosure with churches and water tanks. Already abandoned in the 15th century, traces of the castle are now lost, concealed in the mountain forests that are the feature of the landscape. Across the border, past Porto Ceresio, visitors can admire, in the distance, the castle and town of Mor226

Master of Santa Maria in Selva, Worshippers, detail of Virgin of Mercy and Annunciation, 1400-1401.

Locarno, Santa Maria in Selva

CASTLE TRAIL 10

cote on the other side of the lake. The road leading to Riva San Vitale winds between the cliffs and the lake, offering breath-taking views. Visitors have to travel along the entire lake basin to follow the third stage of the castle trail.

After having visited Morcote and its vineyards, visitors may opt to return on Italian soil and stop at Campione to admire the church of Santa Maria dei Ghirli which keeps late-gothic frescoes and a Bernardino Luino pictorial cycle with scenes from the creation made in the Dürer style. Or the tiny museum which keeps a fime collection of marble pieces from the Renaissance. Otherwise, visitors can head for Lugano and conclude the tour in the church of the Santa Maria degli Angeli Franciscan abbey, which was built on the site where the old Rusca Sanseverino Castle once stood. Here visitors can admire Luini’s outstanding 1529 partition wall or the Rusca chapel where a painting depicts a host of sick and beggars marching out of a crepuscular Milan (ante 1528).

From Valcuvia to Locarno trough Arcumeggia, Caldè, Luino and Maccagno (approximately 85 kilometres) In Valcuvia, between Casalzuigno – known for its fine Della Porta Bozzolo villa owned by Fai, the Italian environmental fund – and Vergobbio, there is a road that climbs up to Arcumeggia, a town famous for its contemporary mural paintings.

The difficult road then continues over the mountain that divides the valley from Lake Maggiore and leads to the Verbano at Castelveccana and then to the hamlet of Caldè and finally to the fortress of Travaglia. A stronghold of the archbishops of Milan besides being the military headquarters of the Rusca fiefdom, Travaglia was razed to the ground by the Swiss sometime around 1513. There remains nothing on the rocky spur, that goes down at a sheer drop over the lake, of the old fortifications and military port, barring for a few scattered walls and the traces of a ditch. The 12th century church of Santa Veronica, with some fragments of a 14th century cycle of frescoes, provides a testimony of the importance of this site. The few scanty remains of the castle can be reached along a steep wooded path. From up there the view embraces the expanse from Cannero to Stresa; and from the sheer drop above the lake it is possible to catch a glimpse, here and there

Johannes Stumpf, Luggaris vonn Eydgnossen belagert, in Gemeiner loblicher Eydgnoschaft Stetten Landen und Völckern, 15471548

227

SEEKING CONTROL OF THE PRE-ALPINE VALLEYS

Erudite memory of the territory The route of this itinerary has been, in all effects, charted out in an erudite work of the 15th century. The humanist Domenico Belli, a native of Maccagno Inferiore and, for this reason, also known as Maccaneo, was educated at the school founded by Cola Montano, the same one attended by the young assassins of duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza. A preceptor of the many children of the poet and aristocrat Gaspare Ambrogio Visconti, of the Cassano Magnago branch, Belli died in Turin in 1530 after having spent time as a historiographer in the court of the Savoia. He wrote Chorographia Verbani Lacus, printed in Milan in 1490 by the German typographer Ulrich Scinzenzeler. Coming with the first ever cartographic representation of Lake Maggiore, the text is famous for the account given of Bramante’s experience in the area – there

is a portrait of the master while he is prospecting precious stones along the coast of the Verbano to be used to reproduce the effect of ancient Roman marble – and for the interesting itinerary he provides (from the fortifications of Bellinzona to the farmlands of Vigevano), the outcome of which is a map charting out the routes that existed in the dukedom of Milan.

The castles of the Valcuvia are also recalled in another erudite work of the Renaissance: the Latin carme entitled Descriptio vallis Cuvi, composed by the feudal lord Giovanni Stefano Cotta.

The brief poetic composition is essentially a list of places in the valley that, however, mentions not only the castles at Orino, Cuvio, Cabiaglio, but also the territory’s rich fauna, namely deer, boars and birds of prey.

along the lakeshore, of the constructions with towers that in the 19th century housed brickworks. As an alternative, it is possible, skipping the Caldè stronghold, to reach Luino from the Valcuvia, comfortably travelling along the Statale 394 road that crosses the Valtravaglia, or otherwise one can follow, after Caldè, the coastal route to Porto Valtravaglia and Germignaga.

Worth visiting at Luino is San Pietro in Campagna, an old rural parish church now located near the present-day cemetery, that keeps an early 16th century Adoration of the Magi, identical to the one at San Siro at Lanzo d’Intelvi (another Rusca fief), proving that there existed a previous common model for the painting. Along the lakefront, outside the town centre, there is Santa Maria del Carmine, at one time a convent church. The gate frame bears the Rusca insignia, coupled with the initials of count Giovanni and of the podestà Ambrogio Gritti, in office from 1489 to 1497.

Coasting the lake, the road leads to the Swiss border. The area is studded with mighty stone towers that mark the territory: at Mesenzana, still within the valley; at Ligurno, a hamlet of Porto Valtravaglia; at Maccagno Inferiore; and at Pino. A more complex fortified structure must have existed at Maccagno, the centre of a Mandelli fiefdom that was almost an enclave in the lands duke Filippo Maria Visconti (1412-1447) assigned to the Rusca. At Sopraceneri, over the Ticino, at a place not distant from its lake estuary, lies Locarno, but before getting there a stop is recommended at the historic centre of Muralto. The visit can then proceed, along the lakeshore, to Cannero. Awaiting the construction of suitable docking facilities, the castle on the islands can be admired only from afar, from the coast or, if you are lucky, from a boat.

228

Morcote Castle with the Lake of Lugano and the mountains on the background

CASTLE TRAIL 10

229

THE ORINO STRONGHOLD

MUNICIPALITY: Orino (Varese) TYPOLOGY: stronghold FAMILY LINEAGE: Cotta, Visconti Borromeo Arese, Corti, Bonaria, Clivio, Moia, Sangalli, Mascioni STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: private residence, event venue

The walls of the rocchetta, Orino

230

The ruins of the Orino stronghold rise up from the woodlands, one kilometre away from the town bearing the same name, on a promontory rising 525 metres from the northwestern slopes of Campo dei Fiori. It is likely that a fortification existed here in the 12th century along the road connecting the archbishop castle of Angera with the territory of Como. Nevertheless no documentary or archaeological evidence can demonstrate that the fortification existed prior to the 15th century. The construction of the stronghold must thus be attributed to an initiative taken by the Cotta family. In 1450, the new duke Francesco Sforza (1450-1466)

assigned the fiefdom of Valcuvia to his councillor Pietro Cotta, while the feudal administrative centre was installed at Cuvio Castle, now palazzo Cotta Litta Arese.

Although the Cottas resided stably in Milan, they fortified, jointly with the Sforzas, a number of towns in the valley (Bedero, Cabiaglio, Orino), making the effort to reside in some of them for brief periods of time. Between 1510 and 1515, as with most other castles in the area, also Orino Castle was occupied, and partially damaged, by Canton militias from Lucerna, Uri and Nidwalden. The Swiss contested the privileges over the Valcuvia that had been granted to the Milanese family, receiving the backing of Ercole Rusca, the illegitimate heir of the counts of Locarno. Nevertheless, the Cottas, who had sided with Massimiliano Sforza, negotiated terms with the new rulers in a bid to be reconfirmed in their lands. Notwithstanding the success of their pleas, Orino Castle lost its role as a primary defensive bastion to the extent that already by the end of the 16th century the area within the fortified enclosure was being used as agricultural land. In 1728, the entire fiefdom was ceded by another Pietro Cotta, descendent of the first one, to count Giulio Visconti Borromeo Arese. Some years later, around 1757, what remained of the stronghold of Orino, with its 60 perches of annexed lands, was definitely sold by the Cottas. Many owners followed in the course of the following centuries, but it was only in the early years of the 20th century that serious restoration was carried out. Another long period of neglect followed, interrupted but recently by the current owners who now utilise the castle as an events venue, including concerts

ORINO

and other open air activities in summer.

An uphill road immersed in the forest takes you up to the ruins of the old castle. The remaining traces point out to what must have been quite an imposing castle. The 50 m by 100 m rectangular fortification enclosed a large area, now completely covered in shrubbery, that must have been at one time occupied by constructions – most likely in wood – for the military garrison and occasionally for the townspeople below. The ruins of a large watertank can be found in the southeast corner of the site. Merlons, especially above the entrance, and crosspiece turrets can be seen on the outer wall, and are the additions of the early 1900s; nevertheless the wall develops along the original layout.

Within, at the highest point of the ricetto – in the northwestern corner, overlooking the valley –there rises the keep, strengthened by a tower. Approximately 15-metrehigh and resting on a 4 m by 5.5 m base, the large tower, made in local stone arranged in blocks with rounded-corners, contained the stairs that gave access to the adjacent rocchetta. The latter was a compact block, 12-metre-high spreading over an area of 400 square metres. The 1.5-metre-thick stone walls of the keep bear traces of the brackets that sustained the communication trenches. The decorative pieces – chimneys, hanging capitals, capitals, columns – that at one time may have adorned the rocchetta have not survived the spoliations that took place over the centuries.

The entrance gate of the stronghold with the donjon, Orino

231

THE MEDICI DI MARIGNANO CASTLE

FRASCAROLO CASTLE MUNICIPALITY: Induno Olona (Varese), loc. Frascarolo TYPOLOGY: princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Sforza, Zemo, Neri, de Theis, Medici di Marignano, Crivelli STATE OF PRESERVATION: reconstruction CURRENT USE: private residence

The 16th century donjon of the Merignano Medici Castle, Induno Olona

232

A fortification at Frascarolo was first mentioned in 1162 when, at the time of the conflict between the Milanese and the imperials, the bishop of Milan constructed an outpost on that spot as a bastion against Arcisate that had taken sides with the Barbarossa. Thanks to its highly strategic position, the

castle controls the narrow entrance to the Valganna, which is the initial stretch of the valley of the Olona river and the gateway to Lake Ceresio. The fortress was owned by the monks of San Gemolo of Ganna, who always remained faithful to Milan. Between 1490 and 1495 the castle often hosted the small court of Varese-based Giulio Sforza, the illegitimate son of duke Francesco, and husband of Margherita Grassi, a very wealthy heiress who held feudal privileges over the country church of Brebbia. After changing hands a few times, and after having been sacked by the marauding Swiss soldiery in November 1511, the castle was ceded in 1542 to Giovanni Battista Medici da Novate, brother of cardinal Gian Angelo, the abbot of San Gemolo who later became pope Pius IV (1559-1565), and of the famous condottiero Gian Gia-

INDUNO OLONA

como, aka the Medeghino. The Medici brothers, who had gatecrashed the Milanese aristocratic milieu, progressively gained full property rights over Frascarolo, gradually transforming the fortress into an elegant villa. They also restored the castle founded by Bernabò Visonti at Melegnano, turning it into a treasure hoard of the family’s glories.

From the original castle, only the mighty tower remains. Resting on a 10 m by 10 m battered base, the square tower, with rustications around the windows and at the edges, lies almost isolated in the northwestern corner, the site’s highest point. It is likely that the adjacent courtyard was partly drawn from the original fortified enclosure, while the elegant turrets, above the rusticated entrance, may have been an addition of the Medicis halfway into the 16th century. The brackets and merlons were designed by Luca Beltrami.

The rest of the complex – with is terraced Italian gardens, façades painted in such a way as to produce illusory effects, porticos adorned with grotesques – provides ample proof of the refined lifestyle that was in force at the villa. Echoes of a bygone medieval era can be observed in the neo-gothic decorations of the fountain that embellishes the farm cottages at the beginning of the entrance pathway.

Eastern courtyard and vaults of the Merignano Medici Castle, Induno Olona 233

MORCOTE CASTLE

MUNICIPALITY: Vico Morcote (Canton Ticino) TYPOLOGY: fortress FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza, Rusca, Sanseverino, Paleari STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice (private property), venue of the Azienda Agricola Arbostora farm

234

The ruins of Morcote Castle lie among the vineyards of a terrace of Mt. Arbostora, 475 m above sea level, that slopes down to Lake Lugano. From that position, the castle controlled both branches of the lake – the Ponte Teresa branch as well as the main Melide, Bissone and Campione branch – while commanding an unimpeded view over the Valceresio, in the direction of Bisuschio, Arcisate and Induno

VICO MORCOTE

Soldiers on guard at the church of Santa Maria del Sasso Domenico Pezzi, Walk to Calvary, 1513. Morcote, Santa Maria del Sasso

At Morcote the Santa Maria del Sasso church stands out on a rocky spur below the castle. Refurbished in the second-half of the 15th century and reshaped towards the end of the 16th century – with the chapel being reoriented to the south – the castle has maintained a number of elements of its Renaissance past. In the Chapel of the Rosary, the innovations experimented at the Pavia Charterhouse have been applied locally by a Varese painter who was influenced by the style that was being developed at the bottega of Giovanni Martino Spanzotti, active in Piedmont and Lombardy at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries.

In the Chapel of the Miraculous Catch of Fish – bearing in mind that fishing was the main activity of the lake towns –the local artist Bartolomeo da Ponte Tresa (active between the third and fifth decades of the 16th century) painted in 1520 oculi with angels according to a pattern that had been tried some forty years earlier by the Bergognone at villa Caselle in the Lomellina; however, in the scene of the Catch of Fish he proves to be aware of the recent figurative innovations developed by Giovanni Agostino da Lodi. But what catches the eye con-

Olona. Little is known of the castle’s origin but it may have been founded around the 12th century on the site of Roman watchtower.

From 1416 al 1434 Lotario Rusca controlled the fortress and obtained the feudal investiture for the Sottoceneri, which he received in exchange of his handing over of the Valchiavenna to duke Filippo Maria Visconti. Following the death of Lotario in 1434, the duke decided the time had come to

tinues to be the view of the city of Genoa which acts as a background of the procession in the Walk to Calvary, placed in what was the principal chapel; here the artist Domenico Pezzi, born at Valsolda but active in the first-half of the 16th century between Milano and Genoa, not only depicts “La Superba” with its coastal and mountainous fortifications – in the process recording in the lake town what may well be one of the oldest representations of the sea city – but represents the cortege of soldiers, the very same ones that had wreaked havoc in the early part of the 16th century, in the reassuring poses of antiquity as outlined in Andrea Mantegna’s Caesar’s triumphs, kept at Mantua and successively at Hampton Court.

remove the Rusca family from the Como region – Franchino and Lotario had in fact been the treacherous masters of Como from 1408 to 1416 – by installing his Neapolitan condottiero Aloisio Sanseverino in the fiefdom of Sottoceneri and in Morcote Castle, first unofficially in 1435 and then on a permanent basis in 1438.

Although the new feudal lords resided at Lugano, in a building that belonged to the bishop of

Overview of Morcote Castle

235

The fortress façade overlooking the lake, Morcote

236

Como, and at Mendrisio (where they had their own palazzo and the local castle belonged to the Torriani), Morcote became the area’s most important military stronghold, and was presumably further strengthened. If the ownership transfers had rewarded Sanseverino for the services rendered to the duke, the Ruscas were compensated with the county of Locarno and seigniorial privileges over the Intelvi valley (1439). However, following the nearly contemporaneous deaths of Aloisio Sanseverino and the duke in 1447, the Ruscas made their way back to their lands, occupying Morcote Castle and part of the estate. The two families – one was Guelf and the other Ghibelline, one foreigner and the other from Como – would contin-

ue disputing the fiefdom and skirmish for the next forty years.

While the Sanseverinos held on to the fief until 1485, their grip on it had been severely compromised starting 1477 when they all but lost Morcote Castle following the crisis that broke out in Milan with the murder of duke Galeazzo Maria and the conflict between Guelfs and Ghibellines at Lugano, where the Sanseverino obviously sustained the Guelfs. The fortress of Morcote was finally taken over by the central power in 1482 thanks to a deal brokered by a Rusca Gibelline from Locarno. The castle was successively commanded by ducal faithful: the Paleari, a powerful local family whose members worked in the court chancery, and the Crivelli, a strong and numerous

slope from Vico Morcote. What little remains are nevertheless imposing. On the north side are the ruins of the grim bastion flanked by a large circular tower. Here are also the ruins of an old water tank, a Roman tower and several rooms, namely a kitchen and small hall.

Further south visitors can observe the traces of the trapezoidal layout of the fortified enclosure. In the southeastern corner there is what remains of the ravelin tower with traces of the old of drawbridge. The fine view and the splendid vineyards make it worth the visit. At Morcote below, at one time fully enclosed within a wall, there rises the so-called Captain’s tower, with a pointed arch and an elegant twolight window.

VICO MORCOTE

Milanese clan. Significant reconstruction work was probably carried out in these years under direct Sforza domination.

In 1512-1513, the castle was partially destroyed by Swiss confederates who took what could be removed from it to Lugano. With the definite handing over of the Sottoceneri to the Cantons, the edifice was taken over in 1517 by Captain Francesco Paleari, heir of the former lord of the castle. The Palearis remained owners for four centuries until the early 1900s when the castle and the adjacent lands were sold to the Gianini, the family that currently owns the Azienda Agricola Arbostora.

The ruins of the castle can be reached going down the mountain

Diploma of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 1466-1476. Private collection

237

THE VISCONTI CASTLE OF LOCARNO

MUNICIPALITY: Locarno (Canton Ticino) TYPOLOGY: stronghold, princely castle FAMILY LINEAGE: Visconti, Sforza, Rusca STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Archaeological Museum

View of the Visconti castle at Locarno

238

Several fortifications are reported in the 12th century at Locarno: the San Michele Castle at Ascona, on the rocky edge that overlooks the lake on the south end of the city; the San Materno Castle again at Ascona, but closer to the river Maggia; the San Biagio Castle above Orselina; the Gordola Castle atop Muralto. A characteristic of these fortresses – of

which little remains but a few scattered pieces of walls and towers – was the way they were jointly managed by the city’s prominent families. Unlike what occurred at the castles of Azzate, Besozzo, Castiglione Olona or Mendrisio, jointly governed by members of the same family lineage – Bossi, Besozzi, Castiglioni and Torriani – these Locarno strongholds where partitioned or divided among two or three branches of different families (Duno, Orelli, Muralto, Magoria, Larocca).

When Locarno came under Visconti rule in 1342, the borgo could rely for its defence on San Biagio Castle, which was destroyed around 1380 in the course of clashes among local factions; and on Orelli Castle, with its fortified fort and a wall, called the “Fraccia,” which was an anticipation

LOCARNO

of the mightier walls of Bellinzona, constructed east of Muralto, probably running parallel to the course of the river Verzasca that closes off the Ticino valley.

While the presence of a fortification is reported in Locarno since 866, the present-day Visconti castle – located in the city’s southwest by the

river Maggia – was probably built over the old Ornelli fortifications of the 12th century. When duke Filippo Maria Visconti chased out the Rusca from the Sottoceneri and handed over to Franchino the fiefdom of Locarno that had been in the meanwhile elevated to the status of county (1439), the castle

Ambrogio Annoni, Giorgio Lombardi, Il Castello di Locarno, 1912

Saints on horseback for the aristocratic Ruscas: San Vittore di Muralto One of the most significant vestiges of Locarno Castle is found on the bell tower of the church of San Vittore at Muralto. The Milanese saint, whose equestrian effigy can be admired, was like all other martial saints – SS. George, Martin, Maurice, etc. – a favourite with the aristocracy. St. Victor, though, was also the patron saint

of the rural chapter of the Locarno ecclesiastic jurisdiction, whose seat was at Muralto. It was count Franchino Rusca who commissioned between 1460 and 1462 the sculpture to Martino Benzoni, an artist who was also involved in the construction of the Duomo of Milan in the years from 1446 to 1492.

239

Mountain backdrop to a Flight into Egypt Built on a rocky spur high above Locarno on the spot of the apparition of the Holy Virgin in 1480, the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Sasso at Orselina keeps a number of outstanding specimens of the Renaissance art of Lombardy. Besides the two wooden groups dedicated to the Passion of Christ – The Lamentation of Christ of the Master of Santa Maria Maggiore (prior to 1485) and the Pietà of the De Donati Milanese school of etchers (ca. 1505-1510) – and the Annunciation by Bernardino de’ Conti (ca. 1522), the undisputed masterpiece at Orselina is the Flight into Egypt by Bartolomeo Suardi, aka Bramantino (ca. 1510-1515).

Where the work originally came from is uncertain, but it must have been well known at the Como dioceses because it was soon reproduced by Bartolomeo da Ponte Tresa in the Camuzio Chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli at Lugano. On the background among alpine ravines are towers with merlons standing out against the blue of the sky.

Bartolomeo Suardi (aka Bramantino), Flight into Egypt, 1510-1515 ca.

Orselina, Madonna del Sasso

became the seat of the comitial court. The Rusca residence was flanked by a stronghold that, coming under direct ducal control, hosted a military garrison and was endowed with fortifications stretching all the way to town and port. As the dukes engaged architects and engineers who also worked on the castles in Milan and Bellinzona, count Franchino called on the sculptor Martino Benzoni to decorate his portion of the castle.

Following the Swiss conquest of Bellinzona in 1500, the defensive nature of the Locarno castle was potentiated by the French who built a mighty diamond-tipped ravelin.

But the definite passage of Locarno to the Cantons marked the decline of the fortress. In 1531 the decision 240

was taken to dismantle the defensive apparatus and three-quarters of the castle was demolished, sparing only a part of the Rusca palazzo. From 1513 to 1798 the remaining portion of the castle hosted the landfogti, captains representing the central government, and from 1920 to the present, it his home to the local public museum, which also houses the archaeological collection.

Approaching the castle from via Bernardino Luini, it is possible to observe the ruins of the fortifications that at one time overlooked the port basin. The vestiges include the façade of palazzetto Rusca, characterised by elegant two-light mullioned windows (the central ones being similar to those present at the Visconti wing of the Angera

Castello, the ruins of the mighty ravelin, now stifled by the modern housing. As for the huge tower of San Vittore, which at one time closed off the stronghold in the north soaring above the town houses, what remains of it are buried under the houses between via Bartolomeo Rusca and via San Francesco. Going further ahead on San Francesco, and turning on Ripa Canova, it is possible to admire the only tower that has survived.

LOCARNO

stronghold) flanked to the left by a protruding body – an old quadrangular tower – similarly endowed with a two-light mullioned window.

Climbing up, the road turns right, under a pointed arch over which hangs a Visconti coat-of-arms, and leads into via al Castello, which is delimited by the long façade of palazzo Casorella, dating to the last quarter of the 16th century. A hairpin bend brings visitors into the courtyard through a gate with architrave. The loggias and porticos are embellished by wooden ceilings that are the salient elements of the entire fortified compound. The walls bear the coat-of-arms of the landfogti, while on the capitals and caisson ceilings are rows of insignia of the Ruscas and of the families they were related to. (At one time the blazons in the portico were 138).

Under the loggias and in the courtyard are the scattered fragments of Renaissance sculptures, some hailing from the demolished church of San Francesco.

On the landing of the stairs leading to the first floor is kept a Renaissance painting depicting the Madonna enthroned between SS Jerome, Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Alexandria and the Blessed Beatrice Casati Rusca (wife of Franchino who led a saintly life and died in the odour of sanctity in 1490) who presents her son Giovanni (who died in 1508), made towards the end of the 15th century by a painter active also at Pallanza to be identified with Giovanni Antonio da Montonate.

On the upper floor are the long Audience Room, featuring the gothic-style twin portals and the Reception Room and corridor also with finely etched wooden ceilings, probably made by the Como artist Giacomino Malacrida around 1505.

Proceeding from the castle to town, visitors can see, at the end of via al

Castle donjon, Locarno

241

THE CANNERO CASTLES

MUNICIPALITY: Cannero Riviera (Verbano Cusio Ossola) TYPOLOGY: fortress FAMILY LINEAGE: Borromeo STATE OF PRESERVATION: partially intact CURRENT USE: monumental edifice

View of the castle on the larger island, Cannero Riviera

242

The castles are located on two small islands a few hundred meters off the coast, just north of the Cannero town centre. Conventionally mentioned in the plural, they are actually the two bodies of a single fortress, made up of a major stronghold – of some 2000 square metres in size – and a secondary tower, built on the smaller of the two islands, to protect the stronghold. Recently undergoing restoration, the fortification maintains the aspect of suggestive ruins, barely rising from the surface of the water. It is impossible for those

who observe them from the coast or on a boat to resist their romantic allure. An allure strongly felt by many European princes in the 19th century such as, for example, Caroline of Brunswick, the exiled wife of king George IV, who unsuccessfully sought to turn the picturesque ruins into her residence.

News of the existence of a castle on the larger of the two islands precedes Caroline’s sighs by four centuries. Against the backdrop of the clashes between the Gulfs and Ghibellines that flared following the death of duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1402), the powerful Mazzarditi brothers of Canobbio – ringleaders among the Ghibellines – decided to built a fortress there, a refuge for friends and a gaol for foes. Forced or out of love, the residents of all local towns and villages contributed to its edification. As for the construction materials, they were taken from the demolished homes of the enemy, chief among which were the Mantelli, whose

CANNERO RIVIERA

palazzo at Canobbio provided the best stones for the enterprise.

Maybe consisting of a simple tower protected by a wall, Malpaga castle, as it was called, was destined to have a short life. Demolished in 1414 by an army of duke Filippo Maria Visconti, once again in a position to exercise control over the lake, it was not rebuilt, and no trace of it has survived. Thereby unrelated to the fortress constructed by the Mazzarditi brothers, the presentday castle was founded by the family that under the rule of Filippo Maria started to establish its dominion across the Piedmontese bank of the lake, the Borromeo.

The period when the new stronghold was being constructed – early in the 16th century – were years of great turmoil, and this time the involvement of the great European powers would ultimately lead to the demise of the dukedom of Milan as an independent entity. A fervid backer of the king of France Louis XII, count Ludovico Borromeo – the man behind the construction of the island fortress – before long clashed with the French side. He then turned his attention on the Swiss, who heeded his call. In 1518 he obtained the citizenship of Lucerne and Bern, and the following year – after surviving a poisoning plot orchestrated by the French government in Milan – he sought refuge at Locarno, which had become part of the confederation. After having come to an agreement with his Swiss counterparts, Borromeo set out to construct a new castle in the northernmost part of his lands, near the islands of Cannero – a highly strategic location from a military

viewpoint and close by his protectors. Named “Vitaliana” after the dynasty’s founding figure, work on the fortress started in 1520 and was brought rapidly to an end: by 1522 the castle was ready to withstand a siege. But not that of the French, with whom Ludovico had in the meanwhile reconciled himself, but of the imperial troops of Charles V, who had already overrun the Borromeo’s fortifications at Angera and Arona.

The imperial troops attempts to take the Vitaliana lasted until 1524, all in vain because the fort proved to be impregnable. But the fortress’ first moment of glory would also prove to be its last.

Never transformed for residential use, the stronghold maintained over the years its military function without ever regaining the strategic importance it had at the beginning of the 16th century. Going by a 1570 inventory, the castle was already in a poor state of conservation with scanty endowments in terms of weapons and artillery.

Remaining throughout a Borromeo property, the Vitaliana was given little attention over the centuries by its founders, so that before long the tottering buildings became a haven for bandits and counterfeiters. The ruins, though, continue to be imposing to this day, especially where the stronghold was mightiest: the keep on the northern side of the larger island, where the original nucleus of the construction stood. Defending the site are commanding circular towers, while a square donjon protects the southern sector of the same island, where the troops were garrisoned.

243

Practical Information For each of the sites – arranged according to the name of the province and municipality they are located in – the following are provided: address, current use of the building, accessibility, telephone number, email address and website also of the local entities. The term open to the public under the item accessibility is intended to apply also to disabled persons, unless otherwise stated.

The essential bibliography is available on www.castellidelducato.eu, which also provides all practical updates.

245

PROVINCE OF MILAN Abbiategrasso Abbiategrasso Castle piazza Castello 9 tel. 0294692454, for visits please contact the Pro Loco association for the promotion of the local town (cell.

3280637390) www.comune.abbiategrasso.mi.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Romeo Brambilla public library, Tourist Office, Pro Loco association, Fondazione per la Promozione dell’Abbiatense (Foundation for the promotion of Abbiategrasso and Surrounds) ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public according to opening hours of the public library; special opening every first Sunday of the month (excepting January, July, August, December) following request to the Pro Loco; special opening for groups of minimum 15 persons AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco Abbiategrasso tel. 0294692464 info@prolocoabbiategrasso.org www.prolocoabbiategrasso.org Culture and Tourist Office of the Municipality of Abbiategrasso tel. 0294692220/92/95 Fondazione per la Promozione dell’Abbiatense tel. 0294692468/58 f o n d a z i o n e @ c o m u n e. a b b i a t e grasso.mi.it www.fondazioneabbiatense.org Binasco Binasco Castle via Matteotti tel. 029057811 binasco@tin.it info@comune.binasco.mi.it www.comune.binasco.mi.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, office of the municipality ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (during municipal working hours) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica, Milan tel. 0277404343 246

turismo@provincia.milano.it www.visitamilano.it Cusago Cusago Castle piazza Soncino 1 CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public www.comune.cusago.mi.it AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Cusago cell. 3493108542 info@prolococusago.org www.prolococusago.org Milan Sforza Castle piazza Castello 1 tel. 0288463700 c.serviziocastello@comune.milano.it www.milanocastello.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, museum, venue of libraries, exhibition halls ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (partially accessible to disabled persons) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica, Milan tel. 0277404343 turismo@provincia.milano.it www.visitamilano.it

PROVINCE OF NOVARA Caltignaga Caltignaga Castle via Castello CURRENT USE: private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public www.comune.caltignaga.no.it AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Atl, Agenzia di Accoglienza e Promozione Turistica Locale Provincia di Novara tel. 0321394059 info@turismonovara.it www.turismonovara.it Castelletto sopra Ticino Castelletto Castle vicolo Garibaldi 33 CURRENT USE: private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public

AT A LOCAL LEVEL:

Pro Loco of Castelletto Ticino cell. 3490090145 Atl, Agenzia di Accoglienza e Promozione Turistica Locale Provincia di Novara tel. 0321394059 info@turismonovara.it www.turismonovara.it

Divignano Divignano Castle near piazza Matteotti www.comune.divignano.no.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice (private property), furniture store ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Atl, Agenzia di Accoglienza e Promozione Turistica Locale Provincia di Novara tel. 0321394059 info@turismonovara.it www.turismonovara.it Fontaneto d’Agogna Fontaneto Castle piazza Castello www.comune.fontaneto.no.it CURRENT USE: private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public (only the courtyard can be visited following a request to the adjacent parish church) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Fontaneto d’Agogna cell. 3357291284 info@prolocofontaneto.it www.prolocofontaneto.it Atl, Agenzia di Accoglienza e Promozione Turistica Locale Provincia di Novara

tel. 0321394059 info@turismonovara.it www.turismonovara.it Galliate Galliate Castle piazza Vittorio Veneto tel. 0321800763 sociocult@comune.galliate.no.it www.comune.galliate.no.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of public library, of the Angelo Bozzola Museum of Contemporary Art and of the Achille Varzi Museum Hall ACCESSIBILITY: visits only by reservation or guided tours on Sundays (contact the Culture Office, tel.

0321800763); accessible to disabled persons excepting the Angelo Bozzola Museum for Contemporary Art AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica Galliate tel. 0321864897 sociocult@comune.galliate.no.it Atl, Agenzia di Accoglienza e Promozione Turistica Locale Provincia di Novara tel. 0321394059 info@turismonovara.it www.turismonovara.it Invorio Visconti Tower via XX Settembre 1 www.comune.invorio.no.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice (private property) ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Invorio tel. 0322259324 cell. 3338339787 stefanettiwalter@gmail.com Atl, Agenzia di Accoglienza e Promozione Turistica Locale Provincia di Novara tel. 0321394059 info@turismonovara.it www.turismonovara.it Massino Visconti Castle of the Visconti di San Vito via Visconti 2 www.castellomassinoviscontidisanvito.it

CURRENT USE: monumental edifice (private property), events venue ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Massino Visconti tel. 0322219713 info@massinovproloco.it www.massinovproloco.it Distretto Turistico dei Laghi, Monti e Valli d’Ossola tel. 032330416 infoturismo@distrettolaghi.it www.distrettolaghi.it

Novara Novara Castle piazza Martiri della Libertà www.castellodinovara.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice ACCESSIBILITY: temporarily closed (restoration work underway and nearly complete) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica Novara tel. 0321331620 iatturismo@comune.novara.it www.turismonovara.it Oleggio The fortified wall of Oleggio Visible from several points (near via Pozzolo) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Oleggio cell. 3357670922 aldospalatino@virgilio.it Atl, Agenzia di Accoglienza e Promozione Turistica Locale Provincia di Novara tel. 0321394059 info@turismonovara.it www.turismonovara.it

private residences ACCESSIBILITY: visits only by request (contact the municipality) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Bereguardo cell. 3382011127 info@prolocobereguardo.it www.prolocobereguardo.it Cassolnovo Castle of Villanova di Cassolnovo loc. Villanova CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, farm, private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Cassolnovo cell. 3355471391 (Domenico Vitale) emily-star@hotmail.it Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica Pavia tel. 0382079943 turismo@provincia.pv.it www.provincia.pv.it Gambolò Gambolò Castle piazza Castello tel. 0381938256, 0381930781 assarcheolom@libero.it www.comune.gambolo.pv.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, public administration offices, venue

PROVINCE OF PAVIA Bereguardo Bereguardo Castle via Castello 2 tel. 0382930362 info@comune.bereguardo.pv.it www.prolocobereguardo.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, municipality offices, public library, 247

of the Gemma Biroli public library, Archaeological Museum for the Lomellina ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (opening hours of the museum), facilities for disabled persons not available AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Gambolò cell. 3206211104 info@prolocogambolo.it www.prolocogambolo.it Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica Pavia tel. 0382079943 turismo@provincia.pv.it www.provincia.pv.it Pavia Visconti Castle viale XI Febbraio 35 tel. 038233853 museicivici@comune.pv.it www.museicivici.pavia.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of public museums and exhibition centre ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (entrance for disabled persons from the façade gate) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica Pavia tel. 0382079943, 0382597001 turismo@provincia.pv.it www.provincia.pv.it provincial council counter at the Castle, tel. 038233853, 0382304816 Vigevano Visconti Castle piazza Ducale tel. 0381691636 (Infopoint) gdegliagosti@comune.vigevano.pv.it infopointcastello@comune.vigeva no.pv.it www.comune.vigevano.pv.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, International Shoewear Museum; public art gallery, exhibition centre ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public Rocca Vecchia Entrances from piazza Ducale (Visconti-Sforza Castle) and via 248

Rocca Vecchia tel. 0381691636 (Infopoint) gdegliagosti@comune.vigevano.pv.it www.comune.vigevano.pv.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public Palazzo Sanseverino corso Repubblica 21 for visits call.: 3356188431, tel.

038120129 CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, private residence ACCESSIBILITY: open by request every first Monday of the month (10-13, 1518) and during Culture Week; the adjacent Tastevin restaurant hosts a hall with frescoes (can be visited on request 10-12 and 18-19, tel. 0381694570) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica that can be contacted trough the Pro Loco of Vigevano tel. 0381690269 iat@comune.vigevano.pv.it www.iatprolocovigevano.it

SWITZERLAND Bellinzona Castelgrande tel. +41 (0)91 8258145 info@bellinzonaturismo.ch www.bellinzonaturismo.ch CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Arts and Archaeological Museums, exhibition centre ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (some facilities available to disabled persons) Montebello Castle tel. +41 (0)91 8251342 info@bellinzonaturismo.ch www.bellinzonaturismo.ch CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Archaeological Museum ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (some facilities available to disabled persons) Sasso Corbaro Castle tel. +41 (0)91 8255906

info@bellinzonaturismo.ch www.bellinzonaturismo.ch CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, museum venue, exhibition centre ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (some facilities available to disabled persons) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Bellinzona Turismo e Eventi tel. +41 (0)91 8252131 info@bellinzonaturismo.ch www.bellinzonaturismo.ch Giornico Church of Santa Maria del Castello 6745 Giornico tel. +41 (0)91 8641321 (for visits contact the parish of Giornico) www.giornico.ch/santa-maria-delcastello CURRENT USE: monumental edifice ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (facilities not available for disabled persons; difficult to access under snow) Attone Tower 6745 Giornico www.giornico.ch/torre-dattone CURRENT USE: monumental edifice ACCESSIBILITY: closed to the public (restoration underway) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Leventina Turismo tel. +41 (0)91 8691533, +41 (0)91 8692642 info@leventinaturismo www.leventinaturismo.ch Locarno Locarno Castle piazza Castello 2 tel. +41 (0)91 7563170/80 servizi.culturali@locarno.ch www.locarno.ch CURRENT USE: monumental edifice,

venue of the public and archaeological museums ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (some facilities available for disabled persons) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Ente Turistico Lago Maggiore tel. +41 (0)91 7910091 info@ascona-locarno.com www.ascona-locarno.com Vico Morcote Morcote Castle Azienda Agricola Arbostora strada al Castel 27 tel. +41 (0)91 9802414 arbostora@bluewin.ch www.castellodimorcote.com www.alpe-vicania.ch CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, private residence ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (facilities not available for disabled persons) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Morcote Turismo tel. +41 (0)58 8664960 morcote@lugano-tourism.ch www.promorcote.ch Lugano Turismo tel. +41 (0)58 8666600 info@luganoturismo.ch www.lugano-tourism.ch

PROVINCE OF VARESE Albizzate Albizzate Castle via privata Castello CURRENT USE: private residence, former spinning mill (partly in ruin, owned by the municipality) ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Albizzate cell. 3386004823 info@prolocoalbizzate.com www.prolocoalbizzate.it Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it

Angera Rocca Borromeo via alla Rocca tel. 0331931300 roccaborromeo@isoleborromee.it www.borromeoturismo.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Doll and Toy Museum ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (facilities not available for disabled persons) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica Angera tel. 0331960256 iat.angera@provincia.va.it Azzate Villa Bossi Zampolli via Castello 48 CURRENT USE: private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Azzate tel. 0332459694 info@proazzate.org www.proazzate.org Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it Besozzo Palazzos Cadario and Adamoli via Giulio Adamoli 13, 15 CURRENT USE: private residence ACCESSIBILITY: palazzo Adamoli can be visited on request (contact: Foderati di Val d’Elsa, tel. 0331783259) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it

posta@prolococassanomagnago.it www.prolococassanomagnago.it Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it Catiglione Olona Complesso della Collegiata (Parish Church Compound) via Cardinal Branda 1 tel. 0331858903 info@museocollegiata.it www.museocollegiata.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of Museo della Collegiata ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (facilities for disabled persons are being installed); for guided tours contact: archeologistics.it, cell. 3288377206 info@archeologistcs.it www.archeologistics.it didattica@museocollegiata.it Monteruzzo Castle via Monteruzzo 1 tel. 0331858974 info@castellodimonteruzzo.it castellodimonteruzzo.blogspot.it CURRENT USE: convention centre, venue of the public library ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public

Cassano Magnago Cassano Magnago Castle piazza della Repubblica CURRENT USE: private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Cassano Magnago cell. 3467467782 249

AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Cislago cell. 3485944384 p.zardoni@alice.it www.cislagoinsieme.it Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it

Corte del Doro Museo di Arte Plastica (Museum for the Plastic Arts) via Roma 29 tel. 0331858301 info@museoarteplastica.it www.museoarteplastica.it CURRENT USE: sede venue of the Museum for the Plastic Arts ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public during museum opening hours (facilities for disabled persons are being installed) AT A LOCAL LEVEL:

Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica Castiglione Olona tel. 0331858301 iatcastiglioneolona@provincia.va.it Pro Loco of Castiglione Olona tel. 0331850084 info@prolococastiglioneolona.it www.prolococastiglioneolona.it

Cislago Castelbarco Visconti Castle via Cavour CURRENT USE: private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public 250

Fagnano Olona Fagnano Olona Castle piazza Cavour 9 tel. 0331616511, 0331610202 CURRENT USE: municipal offices, venue of the Pro Loco ACCESSIBILITY: open on request (contact the Pro Loco) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Fagnano Olona tel. 0331618124 presidente@proloco-fagnanoolona.org www.proloco-fagnanoolona.org Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it Induno Olona Castello Medici di Marignano via Castiglioni, loc. Frascarolo CURRENT USE: private residence ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Induno Olona cell. 3397109919 proloco.induno@alice.it Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it Jerago con Orago Castello di Jerago via Castello 9, loc. Jerago www.jerago.com CURRENT USE: private residence, events venue ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Agenzia del Turi-

smo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it Orino Rocca di Orino footpath from via della Rocca CURRENT USE: private residence, events venue ACCESSIBILITY: open when events take place AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Orino tel. 0332630727 marteganicarlo@libero.it Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it Somma Lombardo Castle of Visconti di San Vito piazza Scipione 2 tel. 0331256337 castellovisconti@libero.it www.castelloviscontidisanvito.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, museum collection, headquarters of the Visconti di San Vito Foundation, events venue ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (some facilities available for disabled persons) with guide AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Iat, Informazione Accoglienza Turistica Somma Lombardo tel. 0331989095 t u r i s m o @ c o m u n e. s o m m a l o m bardo.va.it Tradate Pusterla Melzi Castle via Barbara Melzi 2 tel. 0331841155 istitutocanossiano@virgilio.it CURRENT USE: headquarters of the Barbara Melzi Canossian Institute ACCESSIBILITY: visits on request AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Tradate tel. 0331826833 (Wednesdays and Saturdays 9-12) prolocotradate@libero.it

Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it Varese, Masnago Masnago Castle via Cola di Rienzo 42 tel. 0332820409 musei.masnago@comune.varese.it www.varesecultura.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, venue of the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (some facilities available for disabled persons) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Ufficio turistico di Varese tel. 0332281913, 0332286056 iatvaresecitta@provincia.va.it www.varesecittagiardino.it Venegono Superiore Venegono Superiore Castle via delle Missioni 12 tel. 0331865010 combonianivenegono@libero.it www.comboniani.org CURRENT USE: headquarters of the Daniele Comboni Institute for African Missions ACCESSIBILITY: visits on requests (outside and park open to the public) AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese tel. 0332286163 agenzia@turismovarese.com www.vareselandoftourism.it

PROVINCE OF VERBANO, CUSIO, OSSOLA Cannero Riviera Cannero Castles the islands of Cannero Riviera CURRENT USE: monumental edifice ACCESSIBILITY: islands that can be seen by boat AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Pro Loco of Cannero

tel. 0323788943 (opening: MarchOctober) proloco@cannero.it www.cannero.it Distretto Turistico dei Laghi, Monti e Valli d’Ossola tel. 032330416 infoturismo@distrettolaghi.it www.distrettolaghi.it Domodossola Sacro Monte Calvario borgata Sacro Monte Calvario 5 tel. 0324241976 riserva@sacromontedomodossola.it www.sacromontedomodossola.it CURRENT USE: monumental edifice (ruins of the castle located on the upper gardens of Sacro Monte Calvario) ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (partly accessible), for visits at Sacro Monte Calvario consult the website or contact Cooperativa Valgrande, cell. 3400505707

CURRENT USE:

monumental edifice

(ruins) ACCESSIBILITY:

open to the public (not accessible for disabled persons) tel. 032487200 municipio@comune.vogogna.vb.it www.comune.vogogna.vb.it

AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Distretto Turistico dei Laghi, Monti e Valli d’Ossola tel. 032330416 infoturismo@distrettolaghi.it www.distrettolaghi.it

Tower and fortified walls tower, via Filippo Beltrami 15 fortified walls, visible from via Monte Grappa and via Facchinetti CURRENT USE: in the tower there is Bar Strabilia 2 (old frescoes) and Luigi XIV Restaurant ACCESSIBILITY: not open to the public AT A LOCAL LEVEL: Associazione Turi-

stica Pro Loco Domodossola tel. 0324248265 info@prodomodossola.it www.prodomodossola.it Vogogna Castle via del Castello CURRENT USE: monumental edifice, events venue ACCESSIBILITY: open to the public (facilities for disabled persons are being installed) Rocca Can be reached by trail starting from the town centre or from the locality of Genestredo 251

Credits

Archivio di Stato, Milano; Archivio fotografico Agenzia Turistica della Provincia di Novara; Archivio fotografico dell’Ente di Gestione dei Sacri Monti. Riserva Speciale del Sacro Monte Calvario di Domodossola.

Fotografia di Antonio Maniscalco; Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milano copyright ©Comune di Milano - tutti i diritti di legge riservati; Umberto Barcella; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven; Bellinzona Turismo; Manuele Benaglia; Biblioteca estense universitaria, Modena; Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense; Bibliothèque du Musée Condé, Chantilly; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Parigi; Pino Brioschi; Fiorenzo Cantalupi; Franco Canziani copyright ©SIAF CNA Varese; Castello Sforzesco, Milano copyright ©Comune di Milano - tutti i diritti riservati; Castello Visconteo-Sforzesco, Vigevano; Gianni Cattagni; Giovanni Cavajoni; Città di Bellinzona; Civica Raccolta delle Stampe Achille Bertarelli, Milano ©Comune di Milano tutti i diritti riservati; Civico Archivio Fotografico, Milano; Paola Comelli; Giovanni Dall’Orto; Nino De Angelis; Renzo Dionigi; Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives; Fondazione Vivi Papi; Fototeca dei Musei Civici di Pavia; Stefano Gusmeroli; Historisches Museum, Lucerna; Korporationsgemeinde der Stadt Luzern, Lucerna; Kupferstichkabinett, Berlino; Paolo Liaci; Marka, Yoko Aziz; Marka, Korzhenko Dariya; Marka, Danilo Donadoni; Marka, Klaus-Gerhard Dumrath; Marka, Christian Goupi; Marka, Kunz Rolf E.; Marka, Giovanni Mereghetti; Graziella Martino copyright ©SIAF CNA Varese; Roberto Mascaroni; Werner Morelli; Musei Civici di Varese (foto Massimo Alari); Museo Archeologico Lomellino, Gambolò; Museo d’Arte Antica, Milano; Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania Pallanza; Museo della Collegiata, Castiglione Olona; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Toni Nicolini; Piero Orlandi; Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Vienna; Massimo Pacciorini; Daniele Pasini; Bruno Pellandini (bruno.pellandini@bluewin.ch); Giacomo Perolini; Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milano; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano; Polo Museale Napoletano (Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte), Napoli; Raccolte d’Arte Applicata, Milano copyright ©Comune di Milano - tutti i diritti riservati; Sergio Trippini Stampe Antiche (www.trippini.it); Mario Tagni; Giorgio Telloli; Ivana Teruggi; Silvia Teruggi; The British Library, Londra; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Royal Collection, Windsor; Marco Tirelli (fonte: Comuni-Italiani.it); Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milano; Giancarlo Vettore; Zentralbibliothek, Zurigo; Alfonso Zirpoli.

With regards to reproduction rights, the publisher is available to pay all dues for those images whose rights holders have not been traced.

252

We thank municipalities, public entities, institutions, public and private castles for the information and images provided, especially particular: Agenzia del Turismo della Provincia di Varese; Agenzia Turistica Locale della Provincia di Novara; Associazione Masolino da Panicale, Castiglione Olona; Bellinzona Turismo; Castello di Besozzo; Castello di Jerago; Castello di Vico Morcote; Città di Bellinzona; Civico Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Varese; Comune di Abbiategrasso; Comune di Angera; Comune di Azzate; Comune di Bereguardo; Comune di Cassano Magnago; Comune di Castelletto sopra Ticino; Comune di Castiglione Olona; Comune di Cusago; Comune di Divignano; Comune di Domodossola; Comune di Fontaneto d’Agogna; Comune di Giornico; Comune di Orino; Comune di Somma Lombardo; Comune di Vogogna; Distretto Turistico dei Laghi, Monti e Valli d’Ossola; Ente di Gestione dei Sacri Monti. Riserva Speciale del Sacro Monte Calvario di Domodossola; ErrePi Organizzazione Eventi, Massino Visconti; Fondazione Castello di Novara; Fondazione Visconti di San Vito; Istituto Barbara Melzi delle Figlie della Carità Canossiane, Tradate; Istituto Missioni Africane di Daniele Comboni, Venegono Superiore; Leventina Turismo; Musei Civici, Pavia; Museo Archeologico Lomellino, Gambolò; Museo della Collegiata, Castiglione Olona; Pro Loco di Abbiategrasso; Pro Loco di Azzate; Pro Loco di Fagnano Olona; Pro Loco di Massino Visconti; Rocca di Orino; Sergio Trippini Stampe Antiche (www.trippini.it); Servizio Teatro, Turismo, Eventi, Musei, Castello e Spazi del Centro Storico del Comune di Vigevano; Settore Cultura, Turismo, Innovazione Tecnologica, Politiche della Scuola, Giovani e Pari Opportunità della Provincia di Pavia; Settore Turismo della Provincia di Milano; Studio BBP, Vigevano; Union Service, Besozzo; Unione degli Industriali della Provincia di Varese.

253

Printed July 2012