Visconti Castle

About

The Visconti Castle of Pavia (Italian: Castello Visconteo di Pavia) is a medieval castle in Pavia, Lombardy, Northern Italy. It was built after 1360 in a few years by Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan, and used as a sovereign residence by him and his son Gian Galeazzo, first duke of Milan. Its wide dimensions induced Petrarch, who visited Pavia in the fall of 1365, to call it "an enormous palace in the citadel, a truly remarkable and costly structure". Adjacent to the castle, the Visconti created a vast walled park that reached the Certosa di Pavia, a Carthusian monastery founded in 1396 by the Visconti as well and located about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) to the north. In the 16th century, an artillery attack on Pavia destroyed a wing and two towers of the castle. The frescos that entirely decorated the castle rooms are today almost completely lost. The castle had been the seat of the Visconti Library until its transfer to Paris in 1499. Today, it hosts the Pavia Civic Museums.

Galeazzo II Visconti and his son Gian Galeazzo (14th century)

In 1359 the Visconti of Milan conquered Pavia. The city became part of the western portion of the Visconti territories, ruled by Galeazzo II Visconti. His idea to build a castle came from Pavia's ancient role as the capital of the Lombard Kingdom and the Visconti's ambition to extend their dominion to its territory. He chose the site of the castle in the most elevated part of Pavia, in the direction of Milan. There, he created a citadel, isolated by a moat from the rest of the city. The castle occupied the eastern portion of the citadel.

The castle was conceived as a residential palace to host the sovereign court, the chancellery, and the ruler's family. The military functions were concentrated in the Citadel outside the castle. The construction began in 1360 and was completed in about five years. The castle extended over a square surface with 142-meter-long sides. Internally, the four sides had a series of eleven square rooms, elevated on two floors. Each room received light through a single mullioned window overlooking the moat. Four square towers, 43-meter high, were erected at the corners of the castle. Mullioned windows were opened on the four tower's floor.

The four sides faced the courtyard internally with a portico on the ground floor and a loggiato, open through four-light windows, on the first floor. Crenelated roofs covered the wings and the towers.

The architect of the castle is unknown. Some details, such as the internal square module and the four-light windows, have tentatively identified the Venetian architect Bernardo da Venezia, who was nevertheless active in Pavia only after 1389.

After completing the castle, under Gian Galeazzo's rule, the loggiato of the first floor was modified to make it more liveable. On the north-western and south-eastern sides, the four-light windows were reduced respectively to single-light and mullioned windows. The Visconti made a great effort to decorate all the castle's rooms with frescoes. Since local painters were not enough, Galeazzo II and his son requested the Gonzaga, rulers of Mantua, to send to Pavia all the painters available there on a couple of occasions. The north-eastern side hosted the seigneurial apartments, the richest in decoration. The Sala grande dele caze (Great Hunting Hall) occupied three square modules on the first floor and was the most prominent room in the castle. Faced to the Visconti Park, it was entirely frescoed with hunting scenes and used by the Lord's family as their dining room. A great impact to the visitors had the Camera delli spechi (Room of the Mirrors), a room on the ground floor with the vault and the walls covered with small, decorated glasses that reflected the light of the sun.

In 1385, Gian Galeazzo Visconti ousted his uncle Bernabò and became the sole ruler of Milan and the Visconti territories. He continued altogether to reside in Pavia. He directed frequent military campaigns against the nearby local powers from the castle, making Pavia the capital of a continuously increasing territory.

The western tower hosted the Visconti Library, a vast collection of books gathered by Galeazzo II and expanded by his son. After the Visconti's conquest of Padua, the library received several books that belonged to Petrarch. Geoffrey Chaucer is supposed to have visited the Visconti Library in 1378.

From Filippo Maria Visconti to Ludovico il Moro (15th century)

After the death of Gian Galeazzo in 1402, Pavia lost importance to Milan as the capital of the Visconti dominions. The Visconti continued, nevertheless, to decorate the castle. Pisanello worked in Milan in 1440, and Filippo Maria Visconti (the son and successor of Gian Galeazzo) asked him to paint the great fresco later attested in one of the castle's rooms.

Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan since 1450, arranged to preserve the decorations. In 1457 he called Bonifacio Bembo to restore the Great Hunting Hall. Before the Galeazzo Maria Sforza 's marriage to Bona of Savoy in 1468, Bembo was again called in Pavia to renew the existing frescoes.

On 17 January 1491, in the ducal chapel of the castle, Ludovico il Moro married Beatrice d'Este, daughter of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. In the same year Ludovico il Moro had Gian Galeazzo Sforza and his wife Isabella of Aragon transferred to the castle, who lived here until 1495, the year of the suspected death of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, and where they created a brilliant court.

Damages inflicted during the Italian Wars (16th century)

Since the end of the 15th century, the Duchy of Milan was at the center of the conflict between France and the Holy Roman Empire. The ensuing frequent wars caused damages to the Pavia castle and the Visconti Park.

In 1498, Louis of Orleans, a grandson of Valentina Visconti (daughter of Gian Galeazzo and Isabel of Valois ), became King of France as Louis XII. The following year, claiming hereditary rights against the Sforza house, he invaded the Duchy of Milan and occupied Pavia. During the French rule, about half of the books of the Visconti Library were transferred to Paris.

In 1512, after the Battle of Ravenna, the French retired from Pavia, and the Sforza returned to power. Francis I, the successor of Louis XII and Valentina Visconti's descendant, defeated the Sforza in the Battle of Marignano in 1515 and conquered Milan and Pavia again. The French encountered the opposition of the emperor Charles V, who defended the imperial role as the grantor of the Duke of Milan title. The Battle of Pavia in 1525 ended a new war with the defeat of France and the imprisonment of Francis I. The battle significantly damaged the walls of the Visconti Park, causing the beginning of its decay.

After the release of Francis I, the French attacked Pavia again in the War of the League of Cognac. Odet de Foix, Viscount of Lautrec, sieged the castle in 1527. The French artillery destroyed the north-eastern side with the two adjacent towers. The most prominent part of the castle, the richly decorated seigneurial apartments, went therefore lost. The war ended again with the defeat of France. Pavia and the Duchy of Milan definitively returned to the Holy Roman Empire. The members of the Sforza house were reinstated as dukes of Milan and rulers of Pavia.

In 1535, after the death without heirs of Francesco II, the last Sforza Duke, Charles V assumed the direct rule of Pavia. After him, Pavia remained under the power of his successors, members of the Habsburg house.

Spanish and Austrian periods (1535–1796)