In Castell'Arquato, one of the most evocative and hamlets of Italy, the Middle Ages was an era of elegance and class in which buildings and landscape come together in a magnificent setting. It is here that still today stands the Rocca Viscontea which with its towers dominates from its strategic position the village and the Val d'Arda.

The first historical data on the Rocca can be found in the Registrum Magnum of Piacenza, which places its construction in the year 1342, in full Visconti domination. La Rocca rises on the foundations of a Roman castrum of the II century a.C. rebuilt and re-adapted several times since the times of the Gallic invasions. The complex was completed in 1349, but the client Luchino Visconti, never saw the end of the work dying in that year.

The tallest tower had the important function of an observation tower between the Po Valley and the Apennines and in the fourteenth century there was no way to escape the gaze of those who were looking towards the valley below from the top of the Rocca.

The building has two parts connected to each other: a lower wall placed on two rectangular-shaped steps where soldiers usually lived and where in case of danger the citizens could be sheltered and a minor one, placed higher up, once reserved to the command of the garrison.

It is accessed by crossing a bridge, once a drawbridge, which passes the deep moat at the base of the keep. This houses overlapping rooms, connected by a wooden and stone stairs leading to the tower from where the visitor, today as six hundred years ago, can enjoy the incomparable 360 ​​degree panorama; the same attraction of the visitors must have been the director Richar Donner when, in 1985, he decided to set his famous "Ladyhawke" with Michel Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer, among the stones of Castell'Arquato

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Rocca Viscontea di Castell'Arquato

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There is no cement in the medieval village of Vigoleno. Noble and distant, closed as it is in that narrow wall enclosed by swallow-tailed merlons, it is only accessible by a tower on the north-west, flanked by a keep with leaded loopholes and machicolations, unmistakable signs of the original function military that began in the eleventh century.

The elegance and grace that still characterize this village entirely in stone and bricks are the result of a subsequent transformation into a private residence, occurred in the seventeenth century by the Scotti accounts and then again in the twentieth century thanks to the Duchess Maria di Gramont, who these walls welcomed, just to name a few, the Savoy and Gabriele D'Annunzio.

The Castle of Vigoleno opens its beauties to an elite tourism in search of something unusual and unique. Thanks to the project by Barbara Facchetti, the central building and two watchtowers respectively house double rooms and exclusive suites, furnished with furniture, paintings and antiques. The atmosphere is that of domestic intimacy: guests can freely use the common areas and breakfast service is available until noon, with bread and homemade desserts.

Located on the ground floor, on the main floor and in the former stables of the castle, there are four frescoed rooms suitable for receptions and events - among these, a theater with pictorial decorations of eighteenth-century taste and with only fifteen seats - and the restaurant (reserved for guests) whose specialties are distinctly regional. In the Mediterranean garden, between two guard towers, there is a therapeutic swimming pool.

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Castello di Vigoleno

Il castello di Vigoleno è un imponente complesso fortificato della provincia di Piacenza sul confine con quella di Parma, nel comune di Vernasca. Posto sul crinale tra la valle dell'Ongina e quella dello Stirone su un rilievo di non elevata altezza domina le colline circostanti. Pervenutoci fortunatamente intatto in tutte le sue parti è un esempio di borgo fortificato medievale di particolare bellezza.
La sua fondazione risale al X secolo ma la prima data documentata è il 1141 quando era avamposto, sulla strada per Parma, del Comune di Piacenza. Il possesso passò per molte mani, principalmente fu della famiglia Scotti, vide i Pallavicino, Piccinino, Farnese, e venne più volte distrutto e ricostruito.

Nel 1922 la principessa Ruspoli Gramont lo fece restaurare e ne fece sede di incontri mondani, passarono tra le sue mura Gabriele D'Annunzio, l'attore Douglas Fairbanks, Max Ernst, Alexandre lacovleff, Jean Cocteau, la diva del cinema Mary Pickford, la scrittrice Elsa Maxwell, il pianista Arthur Rubinstein. Nei primi anni'80 fu teatro di parte delle riprese del film Lady Hawke di Richard Donner con Rutger Hauer e Michelle Pfeiffer.

Il borgo
Completamente circondato dalla cinta muraria merlata che è interamente percorribile sull'antico cammino di ronda. Ha un unico accesso attraverso un rivellino, dalla particolare forma tondeggiante, che proteggeva il vero portale d'ingresso. Il cuore del borgo è la piazza, con fontana centrale, su cui si affacciano: il mastio, la parte residenziale del castello, l'oratorio e la cisterna. Il paese prosegue con un piccolo gruppo di case strette intorno alla pieve di San Giorgio. Sul lato est, tra le abitazioni e le mura si trova un giardino.

Il mastio
Ha un imponente torrione di pianta quadrangolare con feritoie, beccatelli e merli ghibellini. Ospita sale museali con documenti storici e fotografici. Un camminamento di ronda lo collega alla seconda torre e da qui alla parte residenziale.

Mastio e borgo di Vigoleno

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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Castello di Scipione

Il castello di Castelnuovo Fogliani, fino al 1450 circa noto come Castelnuovo dei Terzi, era una imponente rocca medievale. Interamente riedificato nel secolo XVII nelle forme di palazzo signorile secondo un progetto attribuito all’architetto Luigi Vanvitelli, della possente struttura medievale conserva soltanto la svettante torre, alzata nel 1377 dal condottiero visconteo Niccolò Terzi il Vecchio. Così ne scrive lo Zuccagni-Orlandini: “si eleva quasi isolato in riva all'Ongina, portava nel secolo XII il nome di M. Bello o di Belmonte, per l'amenissime prospettive che si godono in quell'alture. I Pelavicino vi costruirono alcuni fabbricati, e li munirono di bastioni e fortilizj. Restarono questi danneggiati dal furore delle fazioni, ma Niccolò Terzi, succeduto nel possesso del feudo, fece ricostruire nel 1377 l'elevata torre, e cosi venne a cambiarsi il nome di Belmonte in Castelnuovo: questo fortilizio resta tuttora in piedi, nel lato di una vasta piazza”.
Storia
L’antico maniero medievale, eretto nel XII secolo, fu dimora e base strategica di potenti casati parmigiani e padani, quali i da Correggio, i Pallavicino e quindi i Terzi di Parma. Nel 1364 Niccolò il Vecchio acquistò dal piacentino Gherardo Visconti le giurisdizioni di Castelnuovo e di Casale Albino che poi gli furono assegnate in feudo nel 1386 dal signore di Milano Gian Galeazzo Visconti.[2] L'anno successivo, nel 1387, l'imperatore Venceslao di Lussemburgo con proprio diploma siglato a Norimberga, confermava l’infeudazione di quelle terre, e di numerose altre minori nel Parmense, a Niccolò Terzi il Vecchio, e ai suoi discendenti: i figli Ottobuono, con il fratello Giacomo, e quindi il nipote Niccolò de' Terzi, il Guerriero che, nel confliggere di alterne vicende, riuscirono a conservarne il possesso sino al 1449. Il castello, divenuto la principale base strategica del casato, ebbe allora il nome di Castelnuovo dei Terzi.[3]

Sconfitto e costretto all’esilio presso la corte dei Gonzaga di Mantova, Niccolò il Guerriero, nel 1449, da Francesco Sforza, nuovo signore di Milano, il castello, passò brevemente in proprietà dei Terzi di Sissa.

In seguito fu assegnato ai Dalla Porta, poi ai Visconti di Piacenza. Nel 1466 il duca Galeazzo Maria Sforza, figlio di Francesco, investì il fratellastro Tristano Sforza del feudo onorifico terra Castrinovi.

Defunto Tristano, nel 1472, il feudo fu assegnato a Lodovico Fogliani da Reggio, che aveva sposato in seconde nozze la madre del duca Francesco Sforza, Lucia Terzani.

Nel 1479 il figlio di Lodovico, Corrado Sforza Fogliani, capostipite dell’illustre casato piacentino dei marchesi Sforza Fogliani d’Aragona, ebbe l’investitura del feudo di Castelnuovo che da allora si mantenne per tre secoli tra i possedimenti della casata, dando il nuovo nome al castello e al borgo di Castelnuovo Fogliani che tuttora lo distingue.

Intorno al XVII secolo il castello ha vissuto il suo periodo di massimo splendore, grazie soprattutto al rifacimento architettonico del Vanvitelli deciso dal duca Giovanni Fogliani. Nel 1769 questi lasciò eredi di tutti i propri beni il nipote Federico Meli Lupi di Soragna con l’obbligo di assumere il Casato dei Fogliani.

L’ultimo discendente della famiglia fu Federico, che nominò erede universale la figlia Clelia Sforza Fogliani d’Aragona, consorte e presto vedova del marchese Pallavicino di Parma. La duchessa, senza discendenza, nel 1925 poco prima della sua morte, donò il palazzo-castello di Castelnuovo alla Chiesa di Roma. Papa Pio XI decise di farne una sede universitaria riservata alle religiose intenzionate a perfezionare gli studi. Padre Agostino Gemelli, responsabile dell’Istituto, fondatore e rettore dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, si assunse l’incarico di organizzarla e già nel 1926 venne inaugurato il primo anno accademico.

Castello di Castelnuovo Fogliani

"Terme Berzieri" is one of the most complex and interesting buildings of Salsomaggiore Terme. The spa building is dedicated to Lorenzo Berzieri, the first doctor who systematically studied the therapeutic properties of the town's natural mineral waters. 

The "Terme Berzieri" were designed at the beginning of 1900. 
In 1912, the project was given to the architect Ugo Giusti, in an earlier phase he worked on the project with the engineer Giulio Bernardini. 

In 1919, after the interruption of the First World War, the project included Galileo Chini and his collaborators of San Lorenzo Ceramics Works, which prepared the building's decorative materials. 
The building's work ended four years later, and the pubblic opening was held on 27 May 1923. 

the facade
On the facade, you can recognize some of Chini's particular artistic experiments. Of note are the paired lion heads that decorate the roof over the entrance. The model of the lion head is the work of the sculptor Francesco Aloisi, who together with Guido Calori was one of Chini's closest collaborators. 
In the blue girls in lion cloths, placed to the lower side of the mezzanine windows, as in the lions that flank the word "Thermae", it is possible to see an echo of Chini's experience in Siam, nowadays Thailand. 

the interior
The interior of the atrium, decorated by Giuseppe Moroni, contains marbles, murals and stuccoes. The monumental double staircase at the end of the vestibule leads to the first floor. By climbing it one can see the stucco rosettes on the ceiling, that frame the artificial lights like flowers, while the skylight, open above the funnel of the stairs, confers a suffused luminosity to the entire space. At the end of the staircase are the frescoes of Galileo Chini. The female figures hover on the gilded background among dense scrolls in a fantastic landescape of water and luxuriant vegetation, evidently an allegory using the environmental motifs that characterize the watering place. On the front wall is a fresco of Giuseppe Moroni, of 1923. It is a typical example of Art Déco.

http://www.visitsalsomaggiore.it

Terme Berzieri

Castello di Gropparello History
The Castle of Gropparello rises in the green Val Vezzeno on a rocky peak of volcanic origin.

Formerly known as "Rocca di Cagnano" it is a characteristic example of a medieval fortification placed to defend the access road to a valley, a real eagle's nest on a precipice to dominate the Vezzeno torrent, making the manor virtually unassailable.

Built on the remains of a Roman castrum of the II century BC, it has its first historical documentation in the year 810, in the act with which the emperor Charlemagne grants the fief to the bishop of Piacenza Giuliano II.

During the Middle Ages it was a place of fierce clashes between Guelphs and Ghibellines: in this period the castle is the only Guelph stronghold of the Piacenza area and comes on several occasions and with mixed fortunes attacked by the Ghibelline forces.

It passes into the hands of several famous families such as the Borri, the Fulgosio, the Anguissola until in 1599 Ranuccio Farnese became its owner, creating with the occasion the hereditary title of "count of Gropparello" giving it to the Anguissola family, who will keep possession until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

During the 1900s the castle changed many owners again until 1974, when the current owners made it their residence, but also promoted numerous initiatives to allow all those who love art and history to enjoy this important building.

The central courtyard is one of the most evocative places of the entire structure, with its irregular shape adapted to the construction needs far from the traditional traditional plant. From the terrace above the keep the gaze can range over the magnificent surrounding landscape, up to the Venetian pre-Alps.

The interiors retain furnishings and decorations dating back to the sixteenth century and there are monumental chimneys, stuccos and ceilings in the rococo style of the eighteenth century.

At Castello di Gropparello it is possible to organize meetings, congresses, exhibitions and various receptions, both in traditional style and with an animation in costume, combining art with history and making a unique event. The banquets can be organized both in the interiors and in the courtyards or on the terrace of the Castle, in the medieval Tavern or in the Loggia dei Leoni with its large glass wall.

Outside the manor is the Museum of the Rising Rose, where a path leads the visitor through the wonders of a garden that contrasts over 800 roses of 90 varieties, winding between the avenues leading to the majestic walls.

https://www.histouring.com

Castello di Gropparello

The Castle of Contignaco is a fortified structure dating back to the eleventh century built by the will of Adalberto Pallavicino, but it seems that the main tower of the structure, still present and well preserved, dates back to 1030. After violent clashes with the fief of the Pallavicino, was the family of the Aldighieri of Parma to conquer the castle in 1315, thus obtaining the control of some salt pans scattered throughout the territory (the castle is in fact located on what was formerly called "via del sale", at that time an essential product for the food storage).

The manor remained the property of the Aldighieri until 1537, when the feud passed from the Milanese Chamber of Milan to the Sforza-Pallavicino; then it was the turn of the Terzi and finally the Farnese. In 1762 Don Filippo di Borbone sold the property to the Marquises Ponticelli and during the nineteenth century the castle changed owners several times.

Today the castle is the private residence of the Romanini family and is home to a winery: in the shadow of the ancient medieval tower continues the great tradition that has characterized this territory for centuries, with the company engaged in research and rediscovery of methods of ancient production and vinification. This traditional approach, outside the standardized logics of wine production, is aimed at the consumer looking for wines of great quality, able to appreciate the naturalness of the products, obtained without the aid of chemical or technical fertilizers to force the natural process of production.

https://www.histouring.com

Castello di Contignaco

Il castello di Zena è un complesso di sei edifici storici situato nel comune di Carpaneto Piacentino in provincia di Piacenza. Si trova nella pianura Padana, tra i torrenti Riglio e Chero, 5 km a sud della via Emilia, più vicino alla città di Fiorenzuola che a Piacenza.

Oltre ad essere una testimonianza storica del Medioevo e del Rinascimento, esso è oggi il punto di riferimento per ricerche, studi, riflessioni e confronti sul tema del restauro, della funzionalizzazione e della valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale edificato.
Storia
Non si conosce la data esatta della sua fondazione, benché sia probabile che parti della cantina risalgano all'epoca romana. Le prime notizie relative alle vicende storiche risalgono al 1216[1], in questo anno risulta che, durante una marcia di avvicinamento a Pontenure, fanti e cavalieri distrussero il castello o parte di esso, questo fatto potrebbe essere ricondotto il ritrovamento in alcuni ambienti di affreschi bruciati risalenti a quel periodo. Si ha poi notizia di una guerra condotta dalla Chiesa contro i Visconti nel 1373, anno in cui il castello venne conquistato da Francesco Confalonieri.

Altri riferimenti certi sono il 1494, quando, dopo altri cambiamenti di proprietà, il castello fu acquistato da Francesco Sforza di Santa Fiora, ed il 1531, quando divenne residenza di Costanza del Carretto (detta Madama la Grande), vedova di Galeazzo Sanseverino. Da lei il maniero passò al nipote Gilberto Sanvitale, il quale, come ricordano documenti d'archivio, vi entrò “levando e abasciando il ponte levatoio e la ponticella di detto castello, aprendo e chiudendo le porte del fortilizio stesso e camminando in esso”.

Nel 1702 il duca Francesco Farnese donò il feudo di Zena ai fratelli Pier Francesco e Giuseppe Anviti. Ciò avvenne perché Pier Francesco aveva esercitato con competenza e fedeltà l'incarico di segretario presso diversi principi di casa Farnese, seguendoli in diverse corti europee, mentre Giuseppe aveva magistralmente ordinato e diretto l'archivio pubblico e segreto della Camera Ducale. L'ultimo maschio della famiglia Anviti fu il conte Luigi, colonnello dell'esercito di Carlo III di Borbone, che dopo l'annessione del Ducato di Parma e Piacenza allo Stato Piemontese fu arrestato, incarcerato e poi linciato dalla folla inferocita. Fu un episodio terribile che suscitò l'ira di Massimo d'Azeglio, il quale ebbe dure parole nei confronti dei responsabili di questo delitto di Stato.

Il castello passò agli attuali proprietari (famiglia Perotti) verso la metà dell'800, attraverso il parmigiano Luigi Allegri.

Struttura
Il complesso si sviluppa su una superficie complessiva di 4.000 m², inseriti in un'area verde di circa 20.000 m².

Il castello ha struttura massiccia con pianta quadrata, dei quattro corpi di fabbrica che circondano il cortile interno uno fu demolito nel '700, per cui ora ha forma di ferro di cavallo con un lato del cortile chiuso da un muro sormontato da colonne. Si possono vedere, sul fronte ovest, le tracce del ponte levatoio, sostituito da uno in muratura, e quelle del fossato che lo circondava.

All'interno si possono ammirare pregevoli affreschi e sovraporte, un ampio camino sormontato dagli stemmi della famiglia Rossi che ne fu feudataria.

Gli ultimi parziali interventi di restauro vengono realizzati all'inizio degli anni ‘70, dopodiché si giunge all'attuale progetto di riuso generale.

La quasi totalità degli edifici e le aree circostanti sono soggetti a vincolo per il loro valore storico e architettonico e l'edificio principale, cioè il castello, contiene numerosi ambienti affrescati. È affiancato da un'azienda agricola di circa 40 ettari, in un contesto territoriale di alto valore paesaggistico.

Questo compendio di edifici storici, grazie al progetto innovativo in corso di redazione, si propone come grande vetrina di soluzioni tecnologiche ed impiantistiche non meno che di restauro, e costituisce una grande opportunità di aggregazione di partner industriali interessati ai vari temi concernenti la valorizzazione del patrimonio edilizio.

Castello di Zena

History
The Castle of Paderna is located in the province of Piacenza, in the town of Pontenure and has ancient origins, so much so that the first news on the building show the date 1 December 817.

It underwent heavy destruction in 1216 due to the Pavia and Parma area and in 1247 by the troops of the emperor Federico II to repair the abbots in 1280 to reconstruct and raise the tower.

The Castle was ceded in 1453 by the monks of San Savino to the noble family of the Marazzani da Rimini who maintained possession over the centuries to come up to the current owners Pettorelli, their direct descendants.

Just in 1400 the complex assumed the current conformation of an elegant fortress with a square shape, almost trapezoidal, oriented approximately according to the cardinal points; the four sides are then surrounded by a wide moat that still partially conserves the water. The structure is divided into two sectors separated by a wall: the one to the south with a large square with the attached barns, stables, arcades and houses of the laborers, the other to the north in turn divided into two courts; in the first one there are the stately residence, the well, the tower and the other dwellings, while in the other there is the chapel and the building through which one can access the large rear garden.

Elements of significant historical and artistic interest are: the entrance tower, square and entirely of brick and equipped with a double drawbridge, the "tower in the water", built in the moat and also square, which has the characteristics of the tower teacher with sighting and developed on four floors and finally the church of S. Maria, part of the oldest part of the structure and later incorporated into the noble residence.

Today the castle, which has become a manor house, is home to an organic farm, with a vegetable garden and orchards and the headquarters of the prestigious "Frutti Antichi" event, linked to the cultivation and preservation of the plant heritage.

In the suggestive and elegant rooms of the Castle it is possible to organize banquets and receptions and, thanks to the presence of the internal church, also the ceremony itself.

https://www.histouring.com

Castello di Paderna

An hotel of absolute charm in a village with a castle nestled in the first hills of Parma, the Antico Borgo di Tabiano Castello dates back to the eleventh century, but was built on a previous settlement of the Roman era.

The defensive fortress of the Marquis Pallavicino, one of the most powerful and influential families in the Ghibelline area of ​​the period, has been the center of many historical events and a strategic area for the domination of the nearby salt marshes and control of the Via Franchigena. Tabiano passes several times by hand, is the subject of contests involving the great feudal families - the Pallavicino, but also the Terzi, the Cornazzano, the Visconti and the emperor Federico Barbarossa himself; from the end of the fifteenth century a slow decline began, linked in part also by the change in military strategy that makes defense fortresses less and less important.

The imposing castle is located on a spur of rock overlooking the village and its elaborate defensive system: the watchtower dating back to the thirteenth century, which with its drawbridge represented the main access to the castle, the circular ramparts and the city walls in defense of the village.

From a fortress of defense, Tabiano has now become a very charming hotel and the Borgo is the center of various food and wine and tourism activities.

All the suites and apartments, divided between the manor houses and the watchtower, have been created combining the ancient charm of vintage furniture with modern comforts.

The structure as well as two pools, then offers a spa for lovers of relaxation, housed in a natural cave: sauna, massage, turkish bath, whirlpool and beauty treatments are just some proposals for the well-being of guests.

A stay in Tabiano is a dive into history, immersed in a charm of the past, combined with the psycho-physical well-being and also the pleasures of enogastronomy. The "Locanda di Posta" inside the village is in fact the ideal place to delight with traditional local dishes, taste a good wine, discover the culinary traditions and buy the typical products.