Castle of Rivoltella

The castle of Rivoltella remained on a rise of the ground in a steep position towards the lake, there remains a tower next to the state road.

The castle of Rivoltella is described by Fausto Lechi: “In the Middle Ages the castle of Rivoltella was, we will say, a system with that of a venzago: today both have disappeared; nevertheless it is good to remember them because they had their importance in the Brescia area until the century. XV. It was not large but it had to be fierce with its five towers, two of which came to this day. Today it remains one of the bell-towers of the church. For the other we fought one of our unfortunate battles because, despite our repeated interventions, was pulled down in 1960 because it cluttered the straight of the new road through the country. The usual good business of Italians. The ancient building, of which the foundations can be traced, was rectangular (100×89) and one of the long sides, the one to the north, had to face the lake. The castle followed the fate of the low territory of the Riviera (see Pozzolengo); it is known that in 1267 the Ghibellines from Brescia took refuge in the city; this means that the sympathy was rooted in that faction, due to the influence of the bishop’s government here exercising those rights, which Barbarossa had granted to the theobald bishop in 1154. It is not known in which year the Boccacci, the powerful Ghibelline family from Brescia, became lords of this castle, together with that of Venzago; Certosi is that here there were still lordship in 1411 when, in agreement with Facino Cane, they tried to raise the population against Pandolfo Malatesta. …….. As long as the fortunes of the Visconti family succeeded, the Boccacci family also held Rivoltella, who in 1438 was occupied by the Visconti, but in 1440, with the Venetian redemption, everyone had to leave the castle and did not stop walking. In the church of San Biagio di Rivoltella an agreement was concluded between Veneia and Francesco Sforza, which confirmed the boundaries of the two states to the river Adda. Also remembered is the uprising of the inhabitants of the castle in 1513 against the German soldiers who had camped there. In the absence of news in the Da Lezze catastic, who does not write anything other than a castle, we find a nod in Silvan Cattaneo; “Rivoltella is a land very full of people …. it has a Castle not strong, but for a reduced to retreat in a naive raid of soldiers is very comfortable and safe ….”.

foto Massimo Telò