Palaces, Villas and Castles

Montesegale Castle

It has undergone several renovations and today it is an articulated set of buildings of different periods located within a fortified wall with square towers and scarped walls with battlements. The castle was very important in the local events, it was almost always owned by the Gamabrana counts until their extinction, even if in 1415 the Gambarana family rebelled against the Visconti causing the expulsion of the castle by the Count of Carmagnola. At the end of the last century it was given to the Belcredi family and then, in 1918, it was bought by the Gambarotta family. It was probably built on a pre-existing tower of the XI century: the fortress and the tower are the oldest parts. Given its strategic position as a link between Tortona and Piacenza, the Castle was equipped with a defensive fortress built between 1200 and 1300: a fortification that at that time could host 200 knights and 400 infantrymen. In 1415 when the Count of Carmagnola conquered the castle and almost razed it to the ground, Filippo Maria Visconti had the fortress rebuilt and, with the rise of the Visconti family, it came back into the hands of the Gambarana family. During the ‘600 it was adapted to a noble residence, but already at the end of ‘700, with the advent of Napoleon, lost much of its power. In the ‘800 various owners followed one another and several restorations were carried out. The Jannuzzelli family is the current owner of the castle that bought it in 1971, restoring it and making it a place of cultural events. Since 1985 the castle hosts a museum of contemporary art with works by Bartolini, Brindisi, Crippa, Gattuso, Schifano and Treccani. In addition to the museum is housed an open-air theater, built into an embankment, and there is an oratory dedicated to St. Andrew, built in one of the towers of defense that, according to legend, would be haunted by the ghosts of the valley people who died for the abuses of the accounts. Currently it is a private residence. Inside there is a Museum of Contemporary Art, which can be visited by appointment.

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