Top 20 Castles around Rivergaro

Il Castello di Monticello (Gazzola, PC) is a 14th-century medieval fortification strategically located between Val Trebbia and Val Luretta. Mentioned since 1372, it is known for its war events, including a battle in 1945. It was a fief of the Arcelli family and, despite war damage, retains its quadrangular structure.

Monticello Castle, of strategic importance due to its location on the ridge of the Trebbia and Luretta valleys and its role in the entrenched camp, was first mentioned in 1372 when it was occupied by papal troops.

The Castle was first mentioned in a document from 1001. On this occasion, Bishop Sigifredo granted the Benedictine monks of San Savino (Piacenza) some land, including the area of the Castle. The building has a trapezoidal plan and has four circular towers. The first of the four towers dates back to around the year 1000, which only later became four. The Castle was often the scene of clashes and battles. In 1212, the Guelphs of Piacenza took refuge there, threatened by the Ghibellines of Visconti, but they were worsted because they were defeated later in two battles. In the fourteenth century, the Castle was inhabited by Gabriello Boccapiccina, then it passed to the Chiapponi family. When the Chiapponi family died out, in the eighteenth century they were replaced by the Scotti di San Giorgio, who profoundly adapted the building, transforming it into a stately home. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Castle belonged for a short period to the Lombardi of Genoa; it was then sold to Eng. Giuseppe Manfredi, who had it restored by Prof. Camillo Guidotti. From 1930 to 1987, the building was owned by the Ursuline Mothers of Piacenza. Today, the Castle is used by the current owner as a venue for private events.

An important battle of the Liberation struggle took place here at the castle of Monticello, between 15 and 16 April 1945, in which a handful of partisans barricaded in the castle resisted and repelled a large Nazi-fascist troop of 450 men. Here is an exciting documentation: https://www.rivalta-trebbia.it/battaglia-di-monticello/

The castle, mentioned in a sale deed of 1296, was built on a hill on the left bank of the Trebbia river, in front of Rivergaro, to control access to the valley together with the castles of Rivalta, Montechiaro and Rivergaro, located on the opposite bank. The castle has a rectangular plan with an internal courtyard and four cylindrical corner towers. Made of stones and pebbles from Trebbia, it is composed of three buildings and a single curtain wall, to the south, modified at the end of the 17th century with the addition of battlements and windows. The south-west corner tower has large Renaissance-style arched openings.

Rivalta Castle is one of the very few European examples of manors surrounded by an ancient village that has largely remained intact today.

Rivalta Castle is one of the very few European examples of manors surrounded by an ancient village that has largely remained intact today. Mentioned in documents as early as 1048, it is a sumptuous noble residence, surrounded by a magnificent park. The castle shows a quadrangular planimetric development and is characterized by a singular fifteenth-century cylindrical tower, which ends with the unmistakable small tower

The mighty castle of Momeliano, made up of three rectangular bodies arranged on a U-shaped plan, is the result of two construction phases. The oldest nucleus dates back to the fourteenth century, the most recent one can be dated between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Over the centuries it underwent several changes of ownership, up to the Stevani family who, at the end of the nineteenth century, put much of the surrounding land under viticulture. The general state of conservation of the castle is good. Worth noting are: traces of the joints of the drawbridge in the building facing south-east; the battlements, now closed in an arch and accessible via a narrow corridor; the remains of the pointed arched windows walled up on the south-east front; the loggia towards the courtyard; two pairs of arches.