Montecuccolo Castle (Castello di Montecuccolo)

The origins of the castle date back to the beginning of the 12th century, when Matteo da Montecuccolo promoted the first construction of a fortified nucleus located on the summit of a hill overlooking the valleys of the Scoltenna and Leo streams as well as the Pavullo plain. The building events of the castle are intimately linked to those of the Montecuccoli family, which retained complete control until the second half of the 14th century, when the Este princes extended their hegemonic designs to this area.

The fortress is the result of at least three major building campaigns that extended the complex from the highest point of the hill, where the main tower is located, to the areas immediately below. The oldest structure consists of the keep standing along the eastern front of an enclosure with an irregular perimeter, to the northern side of which a further body of buildings abuts. Later, a second curtain wall was erected, partly concentric to the existing one and connected on the western front to the original core by an additional building body. In a third period, the area covered by the castle grew again, taking on a configuration not far from the present one: the last and largest curtain wall was then built, with an access opening along the southern slope.