| Visconti Castle (Pavia) | |
|---|---|
Castello Visconteo di Pavia | |
| Pavia, Lombardy, Northern Italy | |
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:Castello_Sforzesco_(2).JPG) The south-western side of the Visconti Castle with the main entrance and the two surviving towers | |
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:Italy_North_location_map.svg)  Visconti Castle (Pavia) | |
| Coordinates | 45°11′24″N 9°09′30″E / 45.19000°N 9.15833°E |
| Type | Medieval castle |
| Height | 43 metres (141 ft) (4 towers) |
| Length | 142 metres (466 ft) (4 sides) |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Municipality of Pavia |
| Open to the public | Yes |
| Condition | Good (the survived part, excluding two towers and one side destroyed in 1527) |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1360-1365 |
| Built by | Galeazzo II Visconti |
| Materials | Bricks (walls) and stone (columns) |
| Battles/wars | Pavia (1525, Italian War of 1521–1526), Sack of Pavia (1527, War of the League of Cognac) |
The Visconti Castle of Pavia (Castello Visconteo di Pavia in Italian) 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.[1] 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".[2][3][4] 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.[5][6]
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.[3] The castle had been the seat of the Visconti Library until its transfer to Paris in 1499.[7] Today, it hosts the Pavia Civic Museums.[8]
- ^ Bueno de Mesquita 1941, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Wilkins 1958, p. 247.
- ^ a b Welch 1989, p. 352.
- ^ Petrarch 2005, p. 154.
- ^ Bueno de Mesquita 1941, p. 11.
- ^ Brambati 2016, p. 72.
- ^ Laskaris 2016.
- ^ Tolomelli 2016.