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Trezzo sull'Adda (Milan, Italy): Visconti Castle
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 The first version of the fortress, including its tower, seems to have been built even at the time of Queen Teodolinda, queen of the Lombards (therefore in a period between the end of the sixth and the first quarter of the seventh century).
From the eleventh to the sixteenth century other fortifications were added and the complex was a precious outpost of the duchy of Milan.
In the second half of the twelfth century Frederick Barbarossa enlarged the fortress and used it as one of his residences.
In the fourteenth century Barnabò Visconti, lord of Milan, tore the fortress from the Torriani and rebuilt it in 1370. It is in this new fourteenth-century guise that it came to us.
Ironically, in the fortress he had rebuilt himself, Barnabò Visconti was later locked up until his death by his nephew Gian Galeazzo, who had ousted him.
During the Spanish domination of Lombardy (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) the fortress was used as a prison, and then went through a period of neglect. From 1805, the manor was actually transformed into a quarry of already squared materials for the civic arena of Milan and some of the Monza appurtenances of the royal villa. Only in the middle of the century did the owner Giovanna Borghi suspend the dismantling at the castle of Trezzo, restoring the climb to the tower.
In 1891 the fortress was bought by Cristoforo Benigno Crespi, owner of the Crespi d'Adda cotton mill.
Currently the castle is owned by the Municipality of Trezzo sull'Adda.
The Visconti castle is located on a promontory at the base of a bend in the Adda river and is protected by it on two sides, while on the third side, the southern one, stands a square tower 42 meters high.
The castle was built to defend a fortified bridge over the river of which unfortunately only a few ruins remain.
The structure, now largely reduced to suggestive ruins, is made up of square blocks of log, river pebbles, exposed terracotta bricks.
The castle well has remained almost intact (large photo).
A park has been created around the remains of the fortress, inside which an archaeological museum is set up in which exceptional finds from the Lombard period are exhibited.
Currently the castle is used as an evocative setting for artistic and cultural events in the open air.
Categories: Places of historical value of landscape value
Via Valverde, 33, 20056 Trezzo sull'Adda MI |
Further pictures of Visconti Castle in the section Photography |