MANTOVA CASTLE

The castle was built on the right bank of Luretta stream, just before it meets Tidone river. The building was involved in the fights among Guelphs and Ghibellines, it taken and sacked in the first years of 1220. Two hundred years later, the Duke of Milan authorised his doctor Francesco Borla to rebuild it and the castle remained under the control of this family until its extinction in 1656. In 1660 it passed on to Gian Giacomo Civerdi, who rebuilt the castle as we can see it today. Civerdi counts owned it until 1854 when they sold it to Carlo Besini, who called it Castel Mantova to recall its former resistance to siege and , during the first years of the century, it was passed on to Gutty family and in 1925 to Carlo Prati, the actual owner of the castle.The complex, with its ample park characterised by a rich and colourful vegetation, still has few elements of its ancient castle-like structure: remains of a ‘pusterla’ or door with drawbridge in the southerly tower, some loopholes and part of the decoration above the stone skirt of the curtain walls along the moat, still existing at the end of the 18th century on the southern and eastern sides. Probably the 17th century building preserved the former plan with its square plan and two corner towers on the diagonal. It is worth mentioning the interesting inner court, with arcades and upper loggia on three sides, which spaces among columns are separated by Tuscan-style pilasters supporting long architraves to which the former works as parapet and the latter as shutter to eaves moulding.
In the park in front of the entrance there is the chapel: with its elegant baroque façade with double set of pilasters, it preserves some paintings by G.B. Ferrari painted in 1885 representing the owners Besini and some peasants, while other paintings – in neogothic style – ornate the arches of the inner rooms.
Behind the castle there are country style buildings surrounding a wide court preceded by a monumental portal with pilasters on each side, surrounding the architrave decorated by metopes and triglyphs.THE CASTLE IS CURRENTLY CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC.