Mirabello Castle

The Mirabello Castle lies in what was once the Parco Visconteo, near Mirabello di Pavia. Between the 14th and 16th centuries, it was the seat of the Captain of the Park, the authority administering the Parco Visconteo on behalf of the Visconti and Sforza families. Only a wing of the original castle has survived.

Since the 12th century, the area had been occupied by a Cistercian monastery, extended between the Mischia and Carone rivers, immediately north of the town of Mirabello. In 1325 the Fiamberti family of Pavia acquired goods and lands in the area. They probably built the first castle between 1325 and 1341.

In the second half of the 14th century, Galeazzo II Visconti and his son Gian Galeazzo created the Visconti Park, which extended from the Pavia Visconti Castle to the Pavia Charterhouse, located 7 km north, and comprised Mirabello. A document of 1367 reports the sale of the southern part of the Mirabello Castle from Gasparino Fiamberti to Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Between 1383 and 1384, Gian Galeazzo Visconti destroyed the religious settlement to extend the Visconti Park to the north. The Mirabello Castle was incorporated in the Visconti Park and transformed from a military installation into a hunting and leisure manor. The castle was connected to the Pavia Castle by the Corso, a long tree-lined avenue used for horse races.

In the 15th century, with Gian Galeazzo's son Filippo Maria Visconti, a Park Official (later named Captain of the Park) with administrative headquarters in Mirabello began to appear in the documents. Galeazzo Sanseverino inherited Mirabello probably in 1494, on the death of Duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza. He renovated the castle between 1501 and 1522, enlarging its western wing and adding the balcony with a masonry parapet. The King of France, the Duke of Alençon (brother-in-law of Francesco I), and Galeazzo Sanseverino himself (Grand Squire of France since 1505) stayed in the building in the months preceding the battle of 24 February 1525, during which Galeazzo died like many other nobles of the French army.

The Mirabello Castle is depicted in a fresco painted at the beginning of the 16th century in the San Teodoro church in Pavia and attributed to Bernardino Lanzani. It appears from the south, behind the Pavia Visconti Castle, among other buildings of the Visconti Park. Mullioned windows are visible on its southern wall.

Text adapted from “Mirabello Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Mirabello Castle ranks #5,272 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #396 of the 487 mapped in Italy. Founded c. 1325, it is older than 61% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 604 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Milan, 28 km away. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

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