The castle of Castelguelfo is a medieval manor that rises along the Via
Emilia in Castelguelfo , part of the municipality of Noceto
, in the province of Parma.
The first fortification, probably
consisting of a single defensive tower, was built before the 12th
century to guard the strategic ford of the Via Emilia on the Taro river
, which flowed near the building in the Middle Ages. The certain period
of construction is still unknown, just as the first owner of the
building is unknown.
In 1189 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa invested the Marquis Oberto I Pallavicino with the castle of
Castelguelfo, known then as Burgo Taronis .
In 1212 the feud was
bought by the bishop Obizzo Fieschi , who was succeeded in 1224 by his
nephew Sinibaldo, future Pope Innocent IV , who renamed the manor "Sinibaldo's
Tower" and had it reinforced, with the addition of walls and towers
defensive.
For a further two centuries, the castle changed hands
as the power ebbed and flowed.
In 1407 the Guelph Ottobuono de'
Terzi attacked the fortress, seizing it; to further underline the defeat
of the adverse Ghibellines, he renamed the castle Castrum Guelphum ,
i.e. Castelguelfo, restructured the walls and replaced the eagles
painted on the battlements with lilies. In 1409, following the
assassination of Ottobuono and the capture of Giovanni, his brother
Giacomo Terzi , who had found refuge in the manor, fled to Borgo San
Donnino and then to Fiorenzuola , where he was captured and killed;
Castelguelfo castle was then besieged and occupied by Alberto Scotti(1).
The following year Orlando Pallavicino kidnapped the bishop of Piacenza
Branda Castiglioni and released him upon payment of a ransom in cash,
which he intended to use to attack the manor; however, in April Captain
Ferro da San Felice, who had already attempted an assault the previous
year, captured the castle on behalf of the Marquis of Ferrara Niccolò
III d'Este, who in 1416 he commissioned Uguccione dei Contrari to
deliver it to Gian Martino Sanvitale, as a reward for the loss of the
fortress of Noceto.
A century later, in 1643 Odoardo I Farnese
assigned the fiefdom to the minister Giacomo Gaufridi, who held it until
his death sentence decreed by Ranuccio II Farnese in 1650. The Duke then
assigned the fortress to the duke of Poli Apio Conti; in 1666 the castle
returned to the Ducal Chamber of Parma and Ranuccio II invested it with
the Marquis of Vigoleno Odoardo Scotti; his heirs maintained the feudal
rights over Castelguelfo until their abolition sanctioned by the
Napoleonic decrees of 1805.
In 1815 the marquis Filippo Maria
Scotti alienated the castle to Felice Bernini Carra, who in 1827 resold
it to the baron Gaetano Testa; the latter in the following years had the
interior of the manor decorated with numerous paintings and had the
large English garden that still surrounds the fortress built.
The castle develops on a square plan, around the central courtyard,
with two towers on the north side and others in the center of the east
and south elevations; to the south and east is the large park with lake
and to the west of this, around the large courtyard, rise the numerous
outbuildings, originally intended for greenhouses, stables and a mill,
as well as the 19th-century oratory.
Access to the complex is
represented by the large round arch opened in the ancient ravelin,
located east of the castle towards the Via Emilia; the building, crowned
by dovetail battlements, is flanked by a neo-Gothic style construction,
built as a gatehouse.
The fortress, entirely clad in brick, faces
north with a high facade flanked by two corner towers; the prospectus is
characterized by the presence of numerous corbels with machicolations,
in support of the ancient covered walkways. Analogous architectural
elements also continue along the other fronts, of which the southern
one, rearranged at the beginning of the 20th century, is preceded by a
central entrance tower; the two corners project onto the adjacent sides,
of which the western one opens towards the park through another tower in
the middle.
Notes:
1. I am not certain
if this is the 'great political adventurer'
Alberto Scotto, lord of Piacenza,
who died in prison in Crema in January 1318, but it seems likely.
See also:
• The Douglas family in Italy portal
• Alberto Scotto, Lord of Piacenza
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