Olgisio Fortress is one of the most ancient and most suggestive fortresses in the province of Piacenza, both for its position dominating Tidone and Chiarone streams and for its architecture.
Its story goes back to the eleventh century, when it belonged to S.Savino’s monks from Piacenza; after being conquered by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1378, it was surrendered by Visconti himself to the Dal Verme family, who owned it, with intervals, until the half of the nineteenth century.
It has belonged to the Bengalli family since 1979.
It has an irregular plan due to the uneven ground. It’s surrounded by 6 imposing rounds of walls which helped improve the defence system. The 16th century loggia is remarkable.
Just outside it there are some caves, which used to shelter partisans during the 2nd world war and are presently being studied by speleologists.
Rocca d’Olgisio is famous for its torture room: a drop of water perennially falls in a sandstone tub, and this is the so called ‘drop torture’.
In the inner ward there’s a 50 m deep pit, and at the half of the pit a gallery has been excavated to allow escape and food delivery to the people under siege
During French siege, at the beginning of 1500, the fortress was struck by 1160 cannon strikes in 8 days,and lost just one angle tower.