Castelgrande

Castelgrande is the oldest and largest of the three castles of Bellinzona, set on a steep outcrop of gneiss that rises straight out of the town. Bellinzona sits where the routes from several Alpine passes, the St Gotthard, the Lukmanier, the San Bernardino and the Nufenen, come together on their way south, and whoever held this rock held the road to Italy. The Romans had a fort here by the late 1st century BC, enlarged it in the 4th century, and its garrison is recorded beating off an Alemannic raid in 475. The Lombards and then the Franks kept a garrison on the hill, and Gregory of Tours records a Frankish invasion stopped at the castle in 590. From the 11th century the bishops of Como held the keep, and in the Middle Ages the castle passed between Como, Milan and the emperors before the Visconti dukes of Milan took firm control in the 14th century.

Most of what stands today was built between 1250 and 1500. The Milanese cleared the crowded interior of houses and chapels, divided the flat hilltop, some 150 to 200 metres across, into three large baileys for troops, and raised and extended the outer walls, tying them into the town walls and into the Murata, a wall thrown right across the valley of the Ticino to control and tax the Gotthard traffic. Two towers dominate the skyline: the slender 13th-century Torre Bianca, the White Tower, in the old keep, and the 14th-century Torre Nera, from which the walls between the baileys radiate. After Bellinzona joined the Swiss Confederation in 1500, Castelgrande became Uri's castle, later an arsenal and a cantonal prison, and in 1881 the canton tried and failed to sell it.

The castle owes its present character to a restoration by the Ticino architect Aurelio Galfetti, which ran for about a decade and ended in 1992. Galfetti turned the grounds into an open park, fitted the halls as museum rooms and cut a lift through the rock, so that visitors can rise from the foot of the hill straight into the castle, or climb the lanes from the old town. The museum in the south wing covers some 6,500 years of human presence on the hill, from the first Neolithic village onwards, and also shows painted ceilings rescued from the Casa Ghiringhelli and a former inn, together with a collection from Bellinzona's mint. The 19th-century arsenal now holds a restaurant. Castelgrande, Montebello, Sasso Corbaro and the connecting walls have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

Getting there

Castelgrande is in the centre of Bellinzona, about 400 metres from the main square. Bellinzona railway station is a major stop on the Gotthard line, with through trains towards Zürich to the north and Lugano and Milan to the south, which is how most visitors arrive. Lugano Airport (LUG) is about 23 km away; check what flights it currently offers before relying on it.