The Castle of Scipione, one of the oldest in the region, was built in the eleventh century by the Marquis Pallavicino, one of the few European families to have more than a thousand years of documented history
The Castle of Scipione, one of the oldest in the region, was built in the eleventh century by the Marquis Pallavicino, one of the few European families to have more than a thousand years of documented history.
Even today inhabited by the direct descendants of the same family, the castle was born as a military structure within a broader defensive system, in defense of the Pallavicino State, fief of the Holy Roman Empire and had considerable strategic importance throughout the Middle Ages for the its crucial position for the defense of wells for the extraction of salt, an element at the time necessary for the preservation of food, of which the Marquis Pallavicino were the major producers. Legend has it that the castle owes its name to the pre-existing Roman villa built by the family of Publius Cornelius Scipio the Emilian, the Roman general who annihilated Carthage.
At the time of the bitter fights between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, in 1267 the castle suffered various attacks from the Piacenza area and later in the early 1400s by the Guelph families Rossi and Da Correggio. Rebuilt and enlarged in 1447 by the Pallavicino family, which adapted it to new defensive needs, it saw the addition of the cylindrical tower and the "reinforced", reinforced and lowered walls. Even the small prisons date back to the same years, which have remained unchanged until today and can be visited under the castle.
During the Second World War the fortress was turned into a concentration camp for foreign enemies, in particular Slovenes and Dalmatians, as well as for political prisoners, reaching up to 173 people in July 1943; following the armistice of 8 September 1943, the castle was used by the German armies as a sorting camp before the definitive deportation to the Nazi concentration camps in Germany.
After a few years of neglect, in 1969 the manor was bought by Count Christian Frederik Per von Holstein, who gave it to his wife Maria Luisa Pallavicino, descendant of the ancient lineage; in the following years the first restoration works were started, which involved the main rooms of the large structure, which in 2008 was partially open to the public.
Among the first in the region to be declared a National Monument (in 1922) for its historical and artistic value, the Castle of Scipione today, after a careful restoration, offers inside its elegant suites of charm for a stay full of history immersed in a romantic atmosphere of an evocative medieval village.
Equipped with a kitchenette and comfortable lounges, the spacious and bright suites offer enchanting views of the surrounding hills, the village and the plain. The interiors are furnished with care, with antique furniture and precious fabrics and along the rooms of the castle you can admire the many testimonies of the seventeenth century, from the frescoes to the wooden ceilings to the coffered.
On the southern edge of the castle there is a noteworthy seventeenth-century loggia, characterized by the portico plastered with round arches that develops at an angle on two sides, culminating in the cylindrical corner tower on the southern edge; the large terrace, supported by the high walls of the shoe, allows you to admire a fine view of the valley below, while on the eastern side gives access to the scale of the horses, which leads to the secret garden, full of tall trees in addition to roses and irises .
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