Castello Carmagnola

On a low promontory above the little port of Clusane, a square mass of stone with a defensive moat and arched bridges carries a dramatic story. Later held briefly by the condottiero Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, the castle later shed its armour for a graceful Renaissance loggetta, and its story still carries the condottiero's name.

Why it matters

In this one fortress the lake's political history plays out in miniature. Raised in the fourteenth century outside the older castrum of Clusane — a settlement that already belonged, in the eleventh century, to the Lombard Mozzi family — it was probably erected by the Ghibelline Oldofredi of Iseo, allies first of Verona's Della Scala and then of Milan's Visconti. In 1412 it passed to Pandolfo III Malatesta, lord of Brescia, whose records preserve the castellan’s farm reports; in 1427 the Republic of Venice took over; and in 1428 Venice handed the fortress to Francesco di Bussone, il Carmagnola, commander of its mainland army. Four years later he was executed for treason in Piazza San Marco, and his goods were sold. The castle’s history connects regional political change with the career of Carmagnola.

What to notice

The building is a massive quadrilateral around an internal courtyard, ringed by a defensive moat still crossed by stone arched bridges. Two entrances face east and west; the western one once worked with a drawbridge, and the sockets for its beams are still traceable, though the outpost turrets have gone. The scarped lower floor keeps its medieval profile, while the upper storey shows the residential remodelling that began after 1400. The Sala family's sixteenth-century loggetta is the signature feature: fourteen bays on slender stone columns opening along the eastern facade and wrapping onto the south side, with a five-bay portico and a ten-opening loggia below. The arches retain painted imitation marbles, and the frieze under the roof preserves faded frescoes of castles, fortified towns, a wedding scene and animals. The hall of honour contains vegetal friezes with animals and putti, a coffered wooden ceiling, and the Sala coat of arms on the fireplace.

Context and history

Ownership fragmented early. In the sixteenth century the castle was divided as dowry between the Maggi and Coradelli families; Giovanni da Lezze’s 1610 land register also names the Soncini and Lana among its owners; by 1641 four families shared it, each altering its own residential section and eroding the military fabric. The castle takes the name of its most famous tenant: Bussone held the castle from 1428 until his execution in 1432, long enough to fix "Carmagnola" to the place. The Sala family, who acquired it after his fall, converted the fortress on Renaissance lines. Centuries of subdivided ownership contributed to the building’s deterioration. The Bosio family later restored it in cooperation with the Soprintendenza of Brescia, Cremona and Mantova, from the late twentieth century into the early 2000s.