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Castle of Zena is located in the flat land between Riglio and Chero streams. It is a building formed by 6 historical edifices on a surface of 4.000 mq inside a green area of about 20.000 mq.
It is not known the exact day of its foundation but the first pieces of information date back to 1216, the year during which foot soldiers and horsemen marched towards Pontenure and destroyed the castle, as it is testified by burnt frescos of that period. It is also known of a war proclaimed by the Church against the Visconti family in 1373, a year in which the castle was conquered by Francesco Confalonieri.
Many other historical references like the purchase of the castle in 1494 by Francesco Sforza di Santa Fiora, and 1531, when the same castle became home of Costanza del Carretto (also called Madama la Grande), widow of Galeazzo Sanseverino. The duke Francesco Farnese donated it in 1702 to the brothers Pier Francesco and Giuseppe Anviti. The castle was passed down to the current owners, the Perotti family, around the half of the 19^th century.

The structure of the castle is massive, with a squared plant; one of the four bodies of the building surrounding the interior courtyard had been demolished in the 18^th century, because of this it has now a horse shoe shape, with a side of the courtyard closed by a wall surmounted by columns. On the western side, there are still traces of the drawbridge, which was then substituted by one in stone, and what remains of the surrounding moat.
There are precious frescos inside the building together with overdoors and a wide fire place surmounted by the emblems of the Rossi family, who was one of its landlords.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)