Serravalle (castle)
| Serravalle | ||
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 Serravalle complex, looking south-west |
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| Creation time : | 12th Century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Construction: | Granite quarry stones | |
| Place: | Semione | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 24 '46.1 " N , 8 ° 58' 20.8" E | |
| Height: | 391 m above sea level M. | |
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The ruins of the hilltop castle Serravalle ( dt. 'Dam') are 391 m above sea level. M. on a wide rocky ridge north of the village of Semione , in today's municipality of Serravalle , in the Blenio valley in the Swiss canton of Ticino . Serravalle was one of the most important castles of the Sopraceneri .
investment
Only a few parts of the walls of the 1st period (approx. 900 - approx. 1180) have survived. These are exclusively parts that could be included in the foundations of the 2nd period. The system of period 2 (about 1224 to 1402) is in a main and a Vorburg divided. The outer bailey is located in the southern part and comprises an inner area of 90 by 30 meters on an elongated terrace. The medieval overbuilding of the area has largely disappeared, any remains of the wall are hidden under overgrown undergrowth. Access to the complex led from the north through an outer gate on the east side, after a sharp bend to the right you came to a drawbridge. The courtyard of the main castle was reached through several gates, kennels and intermediate ditches . Today you can reach the main castle via a path from the outer castle. In the main castle, four areas can still be distinguished: a south wing with rooms that are not defined in detail, a large courtyard, the core castle in the northern part of the area and finally, in front of the complex, a mighty round tower in the north. The remains of three massive columns in the courtyard suggest a spacious covered hall, from which a staircase led into the interior of the actual two-story main building. To the west was a long kitchen wing, recognizable by a huge oven and a lower-lying room that probably served as a storage cellar. The living and representative rooms with spacious halls were in the eastern part.
The flanking tower on the west wall of the kitchen room was built later. The strongest structure of the whole complex was the donjon with its two meter thick walls. It was not connected to the main building by masonry, so it can be assumed that a wooden bridge led from the north wing to one of its upper floors. In 1928/30 the then completely buried area was excavated by the Swiss Castle Association. Since little attention was paid to the archaeological and architectural contexts, an architectural development of the castle can hardly be reconstructed. Numerous wall joints between the individual building parts, however, suggest a long building history. There is no archaeological information about when the castle was built. The remains that are still visible today are likely to come from various construction phases in the 13th and 14th centuries. The donjon was probably built around 1250, the semicircular flanking tower in the course of the 14th century. It is unclear whether individual elements go back to the 12th century; possibly there are still elements from the early days of the castle in the residential wing of the main castle. There is also no information about the temporal allocation of the outer bailey.
history
There are no written references to the beginnings of the castle, but thanks to secure radiocarbon dates, they can be dated back at least to around 900. This means that there was a previous building, which was destroyed around 1180 and remained in ruins. A new castle was only built on the area around 1220/30.
The name Serravalle suggests an old dam, similar to the Castello di Mesocco , but there is no evidence of a wall crossing the valley.
Serravalle played a major role in the second half of the 12th century, when under Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa the passage over the Lukmanier Pass became important for the Italian policy of the German Empire . In 1176, when he wanted to subjugate the Lombard cities, Barbarossa is said to have waited four days at Serravalle for reinforcements. The first written mention comes from the year 1224: Guido da Torre, the son of the later owner Alcherius, reports on the stay of Barbarossa and «... he had the castle of Serravalle built». It is unclear whether he conquered and rebuilt an existing castle at that time or whether he had a castle rebuilt. In any case, Barbarossa turned Serravalle over to his partisan Alcherius da Torre; before it was in the possession of his Milanese opponents. Due to the defeat of the emperor in the battle of Legnano in the same year, however, the conquest of the castle became obsolete; it is said to have been destroyed by the Milanese and was in ruins for around 50 years.
In the Blenio Valley, the Milan Cathedral Chapter, to which the Blenies county rights had belonged since time immemorial, took over the leadership again; the torre and its followers disappeared from the history of the Blenio valley. Around 1220/30 the castle was enlarged by a branch of the Locarno Orelli family who, with the support of Milan, took power in the Blenio Valley after the Torre disappeared.
The Orelli are documented as the owners of Serravalle Castle and Vögte in the service of the Milanese for the year 1235. From then on, Serravalle formed the center of power in the Blenio Valley, which was confirmed by further major modifications and extensions around 1300. Further construction phases followed in the 14th century. After the Orelli, the Counts of Oleggio resided in the castle, who had acquired the rights of their predecessors in 1335, and later the Visconti were masters of the Blenio Valley.
From the 12th century, the powers of the valley lords were increasingly restricted by the rights of the communities. Again and again there were clashes between feudal lords and rural people in the valley when their rights were threatened.
In 1380 the Visconti sold their rights in the Blenio Valley to the Pepoli , a noble family from Bologna who were little familiar with the conditions in the remote valley. Again and again there were clashes with the local population. In 1402, after the death of Duke Gian Galeazzo di Visconti, there was an uprising against the Pepoli, in which Serravalle Castle was razed and the hated Taddeo Pepoli was slain. This was in Milan's interest.
The dukes of Milan decided not to rebuild Serravalle Castle. An important reason for this may have been that after the expansion of the Bellinzona dam, the maintenance of a fortress advanced far north into the Alpine region was hardly worthwhile.
From 2002 to 2007, the Department of History at the University of Basel and the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio carried out excavations in Serravalle with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation . The rich finds, especially luxury goods such as Venetian glassware, majolica , coins, jewelery and remains of wall paintings from the 13th century suggest that the residents had a high standard of living, which was based on the northern Italian lifestyle. The numerous arrow and crossbow bolts, blideballs weighing up to 104 kilograms and other exposed firing materials also indicated the use of the most modern war material at the time. In 1402 a Blide (Italian: trabucco ), a throwing and slinging machine developed by Byzantium , was used during the siege.
Santa Maria del Castello church
On the southwestern edge of the outer bailey is the chapel of Santa Maria del Castello; its south wall forms part of the curtain wall. A castle chapel is documented in 1339 when it was consecrated to Saint Martin . As it is presented today with the open vestibule, it is a work of the 16th and 18th centuries, but individual parts of the wall seem to go back to the Middle Ages. The interior choir frescoes date from 1587 and were created by Giovanni Battista Tarilli from Cureglia. The late Gothic fresco on the north wall shows Christophorus , on the west facade Justitia is depicted as a reminder of the time when the area in front of the building served as a place of execution.
photos
Entrance gate
kitchen
Watchtower
Ruin of the residential wing
literature
- Letizia Heyer-Boscardin: Wall paintings of the 13th century on the Serravalle castle ruins, Ticino (Switzerland) , in: Château Gaillard, Caen 2006 (Château Gaillard 22).
- Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and palaces in Switzerland. Volume 9. Neptun Verlag. Kreuzlingen, 1973.
- Werner Meyer : Castles of Switzerland. Volume 2. Silva Verlag. Zurich, 1983.
- Christian Saladin: The destruction of Serravalle Castle (TI) in 1402. Licentiate thesis University of Basel, 2007/2008.
Web links
- Schw. Burgenverein preliminary report on the excavation 2002-2004 (PDF; 5.6 MB)
- Castle world: Castello di Serravalle
- Maria-Letizia Boscardin: Serravalle (Castle). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ruins of Serravalle Castle
- ^ Simona Martinoli and others: Guida d'arte della Svizzera italiana. (Ed. GSK), Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona 2007, ISBN 978-88-7713-482-0 , pp. 87-88.
- ^ Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and palaces in Switzerland. Volume 9. Kreuzlingen, 1973, p. 136
- ↑ Paolo Ostinelli: Pepoli, Taddeo. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ↑ University of Basel. Serravalle excavation ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Peter Sidler (Abbreviation for author: sdl.): Apple of contention in European power politics: Serravalle - an archaeological research project . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . Zurich July 5, 2005.
- ↑ Information sheet Blenio Turismo
