CASTLE OF LISIGNANO
Lisignano is a castle that stands on the site of a Roman villa, the Licinianum of the Traianea food tabula. It is one of the very few castles surrounded by a large, fully functional moat. the structure we see today dates back to the end of the 14th century when it was rebuilt after being burned by the Baron of Hohenburg. The castle is in a perfect state of conservation thanks to the love of the family who live there.
The Castle is not open to free / guided visits
DESCRIPTION
Lisignano, formerly known as Licinianus, is mentioned in the Tabula alimentaria traianea. This is a bronze inscription from the Roman era, found near Velleia, which contains numerous information regarding the agricultural organization of the Piacenza area in the second century, including many toponymic and onomastic indications
Lisignano was then the parish seat in the Middle Ages.
The Lisignano castle with a rectangular plan with four cylindrical towers and high escarpments, it is surrounded by a moat still today crossed by the waters coming from the nearby stream Luretta.
The Lisignano castle is mentioned for the first time in official documents in 1244, when the Marquis Hohenburg stayed there , vicar of Emperor Frederick II. The structure is however older.
Like other fortified structures in the area, over the centuries it underwent numerous changes of hands. It belonged to the Pagans, from 1387 to the Figliagaddi, then to the Ospedale Grande in Piacenza, and from 1632 until the beginning of the 20th century it belonged to the Rizzalotti.
Today it is privately owned and cannot be visited.
It is accessed via a drawbridge equipped with wooden bolts and chains. In the eighteenth century the manor was modified according to the taste of the time: the internal courtyard overlooks a double baroque loggia with a staircase leading to the upper floor. Traces of frescoes attributed to are still visible Fernando Bibiena and which depict the perspective motif of the arcades and some military trophies. The rooms are large and bright with ribbed ceilings and lunettes.
In one of the towers, equipped with basements, the prisons were located. The condemned were lowered to it by means of ropes through an open trap door in the ceiling. According to some local testimonies, there is also a secret underground passage, which passing under the Luretta stream would lead to the castle of Agazzano.