The Castle of Momeliano in the municipality of Gazzola was built around the middle of the 1300s and was variously modified up to the Renaissance period. Very well preserved, it has a square plan with protruding round corner towers, except for the western one, which is square, and a beautiful patrol path.
The traces of the joints of the drawbridge are still visible; the battlements, now closed in an arch and passable through a narrow corridor; the pointed arched windows, now walled up; the loggia towards the courtyard, with two pairs of arches.
Momeliano also has a tower, an example of minor fortification art; the latter seems to have been a dependency of the castle built in the fifteenth century. Inside, on two floors, in some lunettes the coats of arms of the noble families who owned it are defined.
The first news of the current castle dates back to 1368, when its owner, Castellino Dolzani, sold it to Ruffino Borri. Four years later, during the war that the pope was waging against Galeazzo II Visconti, Momeliano (like other villages in the Piacenza area) was invaded by papal troops and had to receive the garrison from the cardinal legate Pietro Buturicense. In 1488 the castle belonged to Giovanni Albanesi, known as Rubbino; three years later the nobleman Antonio Ceresa was its lord. In 1530, by hereditary succession, the fort came to the Bottigella family who, a few years later (1534) sold it to the Radini Tedeschi. Towards the end of the century (1585) the Marquis Ferrari took over the possession of the fiefdoms of Momeliano.
In 1595 the Marquis Luigi Lampugnani was already its lord, who owned other lands in the Parma area and in Lombardy: it was he who had an oratory built in the eastern tower of the castle. After the extinction of the family (1742), the feud was taken over by the Ducal Chamber; however, the widow Lampugnani obtained from the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Don Filippo di Borbone, the right to live in the fortress in order to be able to provide for the administration of the assets she owned in the area.
Count Gherardo Portapuglia in 1798 bought the castle which then passed to the brothers Giovanni and Piero Jacchini and they were succeeded by Gaetano Basini by inheritance; Hence the name Castel Basini given to the fortress. The Jacchini heirs opposed the will by promoting a dispute that lasted 30 years at the end of which the castle passed into the hands of various owners. In 1868 it belonged to the Stevani, a noble family to which the colonel of the Bersaglieri Severino belonged, a valiant fighter in the wars of independence and an expert farmer.
Currently the privately owned castle houses the cellars of the winery located in the perimeter of the external walls.
Words and photos by Piacenza Eventi.
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