Emilian Castles

The main staircase was designed by Aleotti an architect of the Palladian school. It is quite breathtaking when one sees it for the first time.

In one of the noble frescoed rooms, the Basalt outcrop on which the castle is built juts out of the  wall to become pert of the decoration. 

The Rocca Sanvitale in Sala Baganza is just a few kilometres west of the more famous Torrechiara castle, feud of the Rossi’s arch enemies of the Savitale family who owned this castle. The Rocca as we see it mostly dates from 1477 and was built around an existing castle by the Sanvitale family and remained with them until 1612 when the Duke of Parma beheaded most of the local Feudal lords including the Sanvitale’s to take possession of their lands.

The Castle of Torrechiara is to the north of Parma a couple of kilometres from Langhirano, the home of Parma Ham. This castle dominates the foothills around the entrance to the valley that contains the River Parma. The castle has the appearance of a Fairytale castle. From the outside the castle seems enormous, but once inside it is quite small with two floors around the perimeter of a large central courtyard. he outside of the castle is in brickwork in the typical Emilian style.

Rossi later fell out with the Sfoza’s and by the time of his death he was down from having thirty castles to owning just Torrechiara castle. 

The Sforza’s took over the castle in 1482 and the frescoes apart from those in Rossi’s bedroom commissioned by Rossi  date from 1575 when the castle was turned by the Sforza’s into a residence.

The interior of the castle is rather Spartan with to be honest not a lot to see, there are some interesting alfresco fragments in some of the rooms and some parts of the castle including the dungeon were rebuilt with little respect for the original structure after an earthquake in the nineteenth century. The castles prison originally had no doors, just a small window and the prisoners were lowered down into the cell via a hole in the ceiling. It is quite chilling to imagine being imprisoned here when you are standing inside this dark cell.

The inside of the castle is a riot of colour thanks to the grotesque frescoes of mostly natural subjects that colour the walls. Even though they have arrived down the ages to us in rather poor shape, to pass through the rooms of this castle is breathtaking. The most impressive room is that of Rossi’s bedroom which he decorated to honour his mistress with its deep blue &quot;sky&quot;.

Castles are often far more interesting seen from the outside in their setting compared with what one gets to see inside, the Rocca di Vignola is an exception. The castle was founded in the tenth century and had a purely military function until 1401 when the castle became the properly of the Contrari family who started to turn it into a palatial home. After the violent death of Ercole Contrari in 1577 the castle entered into a slow decline. he Castle is now the properly of a local bank who have made it possible to visit this splended monument.

There is not the usual obligatory guided tour, one is free to wander and look around at your own pace. The castle is part owned by the “Comune” and another part is in private hands still. The publicly owned part has been nicely restored, whist the privately owned part has been left in disrepair after the 2008 earthquake and it is not possible to visit this part.   

The present castle was built in 1448 by Pier Maria Rossi the Count of Berceto in the high Apennines on the ruins of an earlier castle and it became his principal residence. The castle was later altered in the mid sixteenth century. Pier Maria Rossi was an able “condottiero” or mercenary to use a modern term as well as being a man of culture. He was connected to the powerful Sforza’s in Milan. Rossi had a wife who he had married for territorial reasons as well as a mistress for whom he built a castle nearby, and so a “ménage a trios” ensued for some time until his wife retired to a Convent. His mistress was the wife of another “condottiero” who probably thought better of bringing war to Rossi over the matter.

The principal tower of this castle is still mostly intact with the original steep narrow staircases that one climbs to reach the top is an interesting experience. The small windows cut through the walls emphasise the thickness of the tower walls.

The “Rocca di Scandiano” started life in 1315 like many other castles in the area as a small fortress. After changing hands several times the castle finished for a time in the hands of the Boiardo family who started to transform the fortress in to a Renaissance palace. Well-known artists were engaged to decorate the inside of the castle as well as the courtyard with frescoes. Little or nothing remains of the frescoes, just a trace in the courtyard. Other frescoes were detached from the walls and ceilings in the eighteenth century and taken to the Galleria Estense in Modena.

The first part one visits on the first floor containeds some splendid frescoed rooms, the room with wedding scene and another with hunting scenes is particularly magical. These frescoes date from the fifteenth century. The frescoes in the private chapel are also very impressive.

The castle was besieged many times and due to Italy’s turbulent history it changed hands several times before the Este family finally stabilized the control of the castle in 1426. In 1482 a massive program of strengthening and extension of the defences took place. The castle covered the whole area of the present day “Historic Centre”.

Rossenella is a simple square stone watch tower on a nearby basalt outcrop. It formed part of the Rossena defences. It has been restored using a modern steel structure that enables one to climb to the top and enjoy the view. The reason for this secondary tower was the need to control two adjacent river valleys.

The prison cell at the bottom of the tower that to enter means squeezing down a narrow staircase to enter is also quite interesting. The cell is called the prison of Foscolo an important nineteenth century Italian author and patriot who was imprisoned here briefly.

Bianello was the home of the medieval Lombard Queen Matilda an important figure in Italian and German history, who acquired it in the tenth century. It remained in the hands of this family until the eighteenth century. With the arrival of the unification of Italy the castle became a barracks for a time before passing again into private hands until 2002 when the local &quot;Comune&quot; acquired it.

Bianello is one of four castles that give its name to the village of Quattro Castella. If you approach the village from the north one sees four humps emerging from the landscape with a castle on top of each one. Three of the castles are reduced to ruins, but Bianello is intact and was a private residence until 2002.

The first floor is where the soldiers employed to guard the castle were quartered. Here we do not find any rich decoration, just some graffiti. We also have the ramparts on this level from which the troops kept lookout. The major part of the ramparts are under cover.

Sassuolo is a rather ugly industrial town at the heart of the massive Italian ceramic tile industry and a place that nobody usually visits for sightseeing, just mile after mile of industrial sprawl is what you will find if you visit this area. But like lots of other seemingly ugly places in Italy, visual surprise is always just around the corner. 

In one of the cells there is a large bed with some curious carving. As well as some childlike carving, there are other figures that depict strange beings.

As often happened at this time in Italy, things ended badly for the orelli’s Like many of the other local nobles it ended with an arrest on false charges, a confession obtained under torture and finally with the Pio Torelli losing his head in 1612, thanks to the orchestration of Ranuccio Farnese, Duke of Parma who wanted to get his hands on the property of the local nobility.

The next stop is the main tower which entailes a steep climb up a staircase that is long way from respecting modern rules! From the top of the tower one has a good view over the town, the area is famous for its cherry orchards.

The moat has long been filled in but some fragments of the walls remain. After the unification of Italy , the castle became a prison which was closed in 1954, when the “Comune” took possession.

The castle started life as a simple watch tower in 950 just like the Rossenella tower situated a few hundred metres away. The castle slowly took the form we see today under the Correggio family who owned it from the thirteenth century until the beginning of the seventeenth century. The military purpose of the castle still dominates the architecture and has not been lost during centuries of transformation. The castle was besieged in 1557 during one of the many wars between Italy’s various city states and a projectile fired from a mortar caused the munitions stored in the top of the main tower to explode. The tower remained permanently shortened.

The frescoed rooms date in the first part of the castle that one passes from the tenure of the Sanvitale’s. These frescoes or what remains of them are wonderful, especially the small “Camerino del Baglione” with its dainty depictions of birds flying on the painted ceiling. The Rocca is worth visiting just to see this fantastic little room.

What did Bonfanti the shopkeeper do to finish up here? We visit these cells with the benefit of electric lighting, What must it have been like for Bonfanti passing his time with this epitaph like carving on the prison ceiling. Studies tell us that the graffiti we find in these prison cells is the result of the prisoners feeling a sense of being buried alive.

The massive tower dominates the castle. It is also the oldest part of the castle.

Montecchio has been inhabited since prehistoric times, but the origins of the present castle date from the twelfth century. he castle sits at a strategic position on the River Enza at the foot of the Apennines. The structure we see today dates from the late Medieval period. The castle was built over the site of a Carolingian cemetery. In the basement of the castle archeological excavations have uncovered many tombs, which can be seen whilst visiting the castle.

Along with the typically Italian decoration, the Dutch roots of one of the people who lived here once, shows itself in one of the rooms which is decorated with Dutch ceramic tiles.

The castle seems from the outside far bigger than it is inside with a large central courtyard. The castle is still a private residence and only a few rooms and the splendid terrace that overlooks the Enza Valley can be visited. The last room one visits, “La Camera Antica” is the most impressive with a splendid frescoed ceiling.

This castle is a massive structure with imposing walls behind a deep dry moat. It is a typical Emilian castle with the characteristic “Merlatura” that defines these structures. The castle was built in the fifteenth century by Guido Torelli a condottiero or mercenary to use the modern equivalent. Pomponio Torelli a lover of the arts rather than a soldier was responsible for commissioning some of the more important frescoes one sees in this castle.

This imposing castle perched high above the surrounding countryside on a basalt outcrop in the Enza valley unlike its more famous close neighbour Canossa is still intact. Rossena formed part of an extensive defensive system centred on Canossa. A series of castles and towers in visual contact with each other meant that a warning of invasion could be passed very rapidly to the main castle at Canossa.

There is not a great deal to see in this castle, there are no grandly frescoed rooms. However the old nineteenth century prison cells are interesting with some splendid inscriptions carved on the walls by the inmates and some wood carving carried out on the huge communal bed. There is a little museum with fossils, archaeological artefacts and some ceramics

The palace was constructed over an older castle in the mid seventeenth century for the Duke of Modena as a summer residence and hunting lodge.  After the fall of the “Ducato di Modena” during Napoleon’s invasion of Italy, the palace fell into a slow decline ending up at one point as a salami factory.  The palace is now being slowly restored to something of its former glory. 

Bianello, Quattro Castella, RE. Page 3. Torrechiara, Langhirano, PR. Page 12. Rocca di Scandiano, RE. Page 26. Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo, MO. Page 35. Rocca di Vignola, Vignola, MO. Page 44. Rossena, Canossa, RE. Page 59. Monteccchio, RE. Page 71. Montechiarugolo, PR. Page 83. Rocca di Sanvitale di Sala Baganza, PR. Page 91

The prison cells here have some impressive graffiti that are as interesting as the more formally decorated walls. 

Finally we arrive at the last part that one can visit, above the main entrance staircase. The frescoed ceiling has been restored, but the walls are still propped up and unrepaired. The style of the splendid “Sala d&apos;Ercole” is very different to the preceding rooms and the statues on the landing add to the atmosphere.

A succession of doorways lead you through a series of rooms giving a splendid visual effect in one part of the palace. 

The graffiti in the cells gives us a glimpse of life in the nineteenth century. Saluatori Luigi was thrown into the cells for insubordination towards a politician. It would be nice to know the story behind this inscription.

A massive statue of Neptune in the huge central square welcomes you to the Palace.

In the eighteenth century the Este family took possession and decorated a part of the castle with plain white Baroque decorations. This is one of the most interesting things one sees in this castle. In the cellar one can see the prison and the gallows chamber, rich with inscriptions of the unfortunate inmates. At the end of the nineteenth century the castle became a barracks until the “Comune” of Scandiano took possession in 1980.

The castle has been much altered over the years and it is not possible to visit the oldest part which is the square stone tower. There are several rooms with frescoes dating from the seventeenth century and a curious ninetieth century games room. This is a castle that is perhaps more interesting for its setting above a wonderful landscape.

Visiting the castle one can appreciate the subtle steps that were taken to make life very difficult for any besiegers who managed to break through the outer walls. After passing under a tower where boiling water would be poured down from above, the invader would be disorientated and forced to watch where he was putting this feet by the deliberately uneven staircase. The invader having battered down the door now had to pass into a small space with the staircase up to the upper levels. Again from the battlements above the soldiers below would have to run the gauntlet again.

Like most of the castles in the area, Bianello has its prison cells with graffiti left by the inmates. One cell is particular in that it has a very low ceiling which prevented the occupant from being able to stand.

In 1565 a Nobile family from Veneto acquired the castle and started on a huge project of enlargement and remodelling of the castle. The aspect of what we see today owes much to this redevelopment. The splendid entrance staircase dates from this period as well as the huge western tower. Unfortunately the plan proved too ambitious and the money needed to complete the project started to run out. The outer South face lacks the planned marble decoration, the statues on the staircase are in terracotta instead of marble and what seems like ruins at the eastern end of the building is in fact incomplete building works. Much of the planned works were never even started.

The water supply for the castle was quite ingenious. ain water was collected from the buildings above and channelled into a conduit which channelled the water into a large cistern under the food store. The view over the surrounding countryside is wonderful from the ramparts.

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