Castello di Santa Maria

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Castle hill with Santa Maria di Castello church

The ruins of the church fort of Santa Maria di Castello (also del Castello ) stand on a striking rocky hill in the west above the municipality of Giornico in Leventina in the Swiss canton of Ticino .

Castle

Access
Plant plan

The church of Santa Maria stands in the middle of the ruins of a medieval castle complex. Today access is via the northwest side of the hill. The old access presumably led via a complicated system of kennels and gates from the east side.

In 1954/55 numerous wall sections were unearthed during uncovering and restoration work and some of them were reconstructed at random. Since the work was carried out without scientific management, no test results are available. Terraces with the remains of enclosing walls stretch around the castle rock. The main castle stood on the elongated crest. In the north lie the foundations of a mighty square tower. To the south of the church, a rebuilt archway leads into a small courtyard, on the south side of which are the walls of a residential building. Next to it are the ruins of a multi-part building complex.

church

The two-aisled Romanesque church of Santa Maria di Castello stands on these ruins in the middle section of the castle area . It was built in two main stages. In the northwest the foundations of a square building reach into the interior of the church. Presumably it is a residential building from the early days of the castle.

  • View from the south

  • court

  • Outbuildings

history

It is not known when the plant was built. A first system, consisting of a residential wing with a chapel and surrounding wall, could have been from the 11th century. Significant extensions were probably made in the course of the 12th and 13th centuries. The outer curtain walls and approach obstacles may not have appeared until the 14th century.

The lords of Giornico were probably the founders of the facility. This noble family was in the favor of the emperor Barbarossa and planned around 1175 to establish a sovereignty in the Leventina, comparable to that of the Sax-Misox family in the Mesolcina . Barbarossa's defeat at the Battle of Legnano in 1176 put an end to these plans: Bernardo von Giornico, who served as imperial bailiff in Leventina around 1160, had to submit to the canons of Milan. The castle of Giornico came under their rule as a fief .

Around the middle of the 14th century, the sovereign rights of the Milan canons in the Leventina passed to the Visconti family . Giornico's castle now lost its importance, as the Visconti, and after them the Sforza, concentrated on strengthening the Bellinzona dam .

In any case, Giornico's castle was probably abandoned during the 15th century. It no longer played a role in the disputes between Milan and the Confederates in 1479. According to the Italian chronicler Giovanni Rigolo (1640–1711), the neglected fortress is said to have been laid down by the Confederates in 1518 on the orders of the Uri.

literature

  • Werner Meyer : Castles of Switzerland . Volume 2. Silva Verlag. Zurich, 1983
  • Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and palaces in Switzerland . Volume 9; Neptun Verlag, Kreuzlingen, 1972

Web links

Commons : Castello di Santa Maria  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Castello di Santa Maria  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: dead link / api.geo.admin.ch  
  2. ↑ Simona Martinoli et alii: Guida d'arte della Svizzera italiana , (ed. GSK), Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona 2007, ISBN 978-88-7713-482-0 , 119-120.

Coordinates: 46 ° 24 '4.3 "  N , 8 ° 52' 16.1"  E ; CH1903:  710161  /  139877