The Chignolo Po Castle

Chignolo Po castle is one of the most sumptuous castle residences in Lombardy. The oldest part is the tower which was built to defend the Po river and the trading routes between northern Europe and Italy.

The castle was built in the thirteenth century and transformed into a princely palace in the eighteenth century in an inventive stylistic reinvention of the building. Its present form is a majestic earthenware building surmounted by a hanging gallery held up by stone ledges. Each window is framed in white. Its most spectacular element is the square plan central battlemented tower with added loggia. Inside you can visit the apartments which hosted Pope Clement XI, Napoleon Bonaparte and Franz I of Austria as well as the sumptuous dance hall whose painted ceiling features the glory of the four seasons. The castle is also seat of the Lombard Rural Civilisation Museum which was set up to bring together the multiplicity of histories which were the basis of the agricultural activities of the lower Po valley and the Lombard wine museum.