Torre di Feriolo

Above the fishing bay of Feriolo stands a squat square tower of white and pink granite blocks. The Torre di Feriolo is the medieval watchtower of the Baveno shore, roughly nine metres tall, likely built in the twelfth or thirteenth century, renewed in the age of Ludovico il Moro, and re-armed in the First World War with Cadorna Line emplacements.

Why it matters

The tower preserves traces of three historical periods. As the Distretto dei Laghi monument record describes, it is a medieval fortification with the remains of two enclosing wall circuits; its renovation in the second half of the fifteenth century is attributed to the period of Ludovico il Moro; and its hill was refortified during the First World War as part of the Linea Cadorna, the defensive line dug against an Austrian thrust from the north, whose builders reused stones from the medieval enclosure. The setting completes the story: the hill, ringed by the lower slopes of the Mottarone, rises out of the pink granite quarry landscape above Feriolo bay, looking over the lower Val d'Ossola and the lake.

What to notice

The alternating white and pink granite blocks reflect the local geology. Interior details noted in the portal include a fireplace flue with part of its chimney within the wall thickness and a basement covered by a barrel vault, indicating use as a manned post. Two circuits of enclosure walls survive around the tower; some courses were rebuilt with Cadorna-era masonry. Quarrying on the flanks of Monte Camoscio connects the site with the region's pink-granite industry.

Context and history

Feriolo was the harbour of this stretch of shore, shipping coal, wood, hay, cheese and Candoglia marble toward Milan, and the tower guarded that anchor point from the high ground; in the granite age the same bay shipped the town's pink stone. Its medieval construction, placed by the official record in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries, belongs to the era of fortified towers along the Verbano shores; the fifteenth-century renovation falls under Milanese control of the lake under the Sforza, with the restoration associated in the record with Ludovico il Moro. In the First World War the strategic value returned: the Cadorna Line fortifications on the hill reused medieval stonework for their emplacements, a rare place where 1915 military engineering sits directly on thirteenth-century foundations.