The Dego castle (or The Barberino castle) is a fortress located in municipality of Bobbio.
The fortress
The structure is composed by two mighty towers, inner connected between each other. The castle is set in an higher position on a rocky cliff at Dego site, in front of Barberino Mountain and the Trebbia river. It was a strategical position to get the complete control of the access to the Trebbia valley along the caminus Genue, the old way to get to Genova and the seaside.
Dego Castle, the story
The castle, named Castrum de Barbarino, appeared already in a document of 1207 as a property of the Monastery of Bobbio. Before it was a fortified house and a checkpoint on the old street to the left side of the Trebbia river, which connected Bobbio to Mezzano Scotti.
The fortress had the function to check the border area, in a specific spot where the valley narrows, exactly where the bend of the river is passing by Barberino Mountain.
The more recent building is from the 1564, the date was engraved on a stone insert on the main access. The noble family Monticelli was the first owner of the castle, later owned by the Malaspina to whom it still belongs.
Nowadays the castle is a private property of the marquise Obizzo Malaspina.
