Castello di Rezzonico
Medieval lakeside fortress whose family name later belonged to a pope, still privately owned today.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Castello di Rezzonico on Lake Como opens with the 1758 conclave in which Carlo della Torre Rezzonico won enough votes to become Pope Clement, setting aside a family name that belongs to this hillside fortress. It traces that name back to the 1360s, when counts of the della Torre family raised these walls after losing control of Milan to their Visconti rivals, and follows one branch as it carried the Rezzonico name from this hamlet to Como, then to Venice's register of nobility by the 1680s. Two of the original gates still stand, entered the same way today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Castello Baradello
Nine-hundred-year-old hilltop fortress tower with a caged medieval prisoner's grim legend and sweeping lake views.
Corenno Plinio
Fortified medieval hamlet on a lakeside spur, with family tombs displayed openly in its square.
Varenna
Lakeside fishing village with colorful houses stacked below a hilltop medieval castle.
Palazzo Gallio
Fortress-like Renaissance palace built by a papal power broker, now a lakeside wedding venue.
Forte Di Fuentes
Ruined seventeenth-century hilltop fortress overlooking a lake and Alpine crossroads, now a picnic and hiking spot.
Torre delle Arti
Square medieval watchtower, the sole survivor of a hilltop fortress torn down in the thirteen seventies, now an art gallery.