Visconti Castle (Pavia)

Visconti Castle (Pavia)
Castello Visconteo di Pavia
Pavia, Lombardy, Northern Italy
The south-western side of the Visconti Castle with the main entrance and the two surviving towers
Visconti Castle (Pavia)
Coordinates	45°11′24″N 9°09′30″E / 45.19000°N 9.15833°E / 45.19000; 9.15833
Type	Medieval castle
Height	43 metres (141 ft) (4 towers)
Length	142 metres (466 ft) (4 sides)
Site information
Owner	Municipality of Pavia
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Good (the survived part, excluding two towers and one side destroyed in 1527)
Site history
Built	1360-1365
Built by	Galeazzo II Visconti
Materials	Bricks (walls) and stone (columns)
Battles/wars	Pavia (1525, Italian War of 1521–1526), Sack of Pavia (1527, War of the League of Cognac)

The Visconti Castle of Pavia (Castello Visconteo di Pavia in Italian) is a medieval castle in Pavia, Lombardy, Northern Italy. It was built after 1360 in a few years by Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan, and used as a sovereign residence by him and his son Gian Galeazzo, first duke of Milan.^[1] Its wide dimensions induced Petrarch, who visited Pavia in the fall of 1365, to call it "an enormous palace in the citadel, a truly remarkable and costly structure".^[2][3][4] Adjacent to the castle, the Visconti created a vast walled park that reached the Certosa di Pavia, a Carthusian monastery founded in 1396 by the Visconti as well and located about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) to the north.^[5][6]

In the 16th century, an artillery attack on Pavia destroyed a wing and two towers of the castle. The frescos that entirely decorated the castle rooms are today almost completely lost.^[3] The castle had been the seat of the Visconti Library until its transfer to Paris in 1499.^[7] Today, it hosts the Pavia Civic Museums.^[8]