Azeglio Castle () is a
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
located in
Azeglio
Azeglio (; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin.
Azeglio borders the following municipalities: Bollengo, Palazzo Canavese, Piverone, Albiano d'I ...
,
Piedmont
Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
.
History
The origins of the castle are tied to the relocation of the settlement of Azeglio as a ''borgo franco'' to its current position, carried out by the authorities of
Vercelli
Vercelli (; ) is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around 600 BC.
...
for military and defensive purposes.
The fief and castle originally belonged to the Ponzone family, then to the Tapparelli and d’Harcourt families, becoming their residence. Among their descendants,
Massimo d'Azeglio
Massimo Taparelli, Marquess of Azeglio (24 October 1798 – 15 January 1866), commonly called Massimo d'Azeglio (), was a Piedmontese-Italian statesman, novelist, and painter. He was Prime Minister of Sardinia for almost three years until succee ...
, a prominent figure of the
Risorgimento
The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...
, owned the property in the 1830s, visiting with his wife Giulia Manzoni and writing the historical novel ''
Ettore Fieramosca
Ettore Fieramosca (born Ferramosca) (1476 in Capua – 20 January 1515 in Valladolid) was an Italian condottiero and nobleman during the Italian Wars. His father was Rainaldo, baron of Rocca d'Evandro, and it is thought that his mother was a no ...
''.
Subsequently, during the 19th century, under the d’Harcourt family, the castle took on its current appearance with the demolition of its medieval tower and the renovation of its façades, decorated with terracotta tiles designed by Ferdinando Cocito.
The castle was damaged by a fire in 1976 that destroyed its historic library. Some restoration works were completed in 2023.
References
External links
{{Castles in Canavese
Castles in Piedmont
Azeglio