Il Castelliere di Lovere

Above Lovere, on the lower slopes of Monte Cala, a complex of dry-stone walls was long interpreted as a prehistoric hillfort. Excavations have found no evidence of prehistoric occupation; the remains may instead relate to Pandolfo Malatesta’s 1414 siege of the town.

Why it matters

The Castelliere is an archaeological site on the slopes above Lovere. Although tradition attributed the walls to prehistoric peoples, excavations found Renaissance ceramics and structures over a road surface dating to the medieval period or later. One interpretation associates the surviving walls with the 1414 conflict that shaped control of the lake shore.

What to notice

The masonry, probable enclosing circuit and position overlooking Lovere and the approach to the rocca of San Giovanni support a military interpretation. Beneath the structures is a paved road whose dating is medieval or later. The site lies on the wooded slopes of Monte Cala, in Ronchi, historically known as Comarino.

Context and history

The war of Lovere and Val Camonica began in 1413, when Pandolfo Malatesta's troops attacked the Riviera d'Iseo and the neighbouring valleys. The first certain news of the siege of Lovere is from July 1414, when food supplies reached the camp; a support base operated at Clusane, receiving bombards from the southern lake ports. Lovere fell in November 1414 — the notary Lorenzo Scano di Gandino recorded that on 3 November the attackers took the castle, the town and the hill of San Giovanni, with a great sack. Pandolfo exiled hostile residents and installed loyalists; only his defeat by the Visconti in 1419 allowed the exiles to return. The Castelliere may have served as a siege camp near the rocca; another possibility is that the remains belonged to Pandolfo’s bastia, a small fortification funded in 1418. Archaeological investigations found no evidence of prehistoric occupation and date the visible remains to the Renaissance or later.