Visconti Castle in Locarno

In its thousand-year history of building, destruction and reconstruction, the Locarno Castle constitutes a dynamic system in constant change. Today the castle presents itself in the guise left by the restoration by Edoardo Berta between 1922 and 1926, to which the exhibition in the castle itself is dedicated. It consists of only part of what was the large complex at the time of its greatest expansion at the beginning of the 16th century. Of the fortifications, some sections of the mighty walls with the moat, some towers and parts of the fortified port, the ravelin and other buildings partly brought to light through archaeological excavations survive. The mediaeval palace and a series of buildings constructed by the Rusca counts on the model of the castle in Milan to house a refined noble residence at the centre of which is the current court are also preserved.