The Scaliger Castle of Villafranca di Verona

We have always thought of Villafranca di Verona as a place of passage for those going to catch a plane or for those who want a convenient base for visiting the city of Verona and its surroundings. And it was in fact with the latter intent that we happened upon Villafranca: we needed a foothold that would be convenient for both Verona and Mantua (two cities we will return to here on our travel space of the site). In fact, we then devoted a rather extensive visit to this quiet town in Veneto: there are good reasons to do so, starting with one of the best (and cheapest) spritzes we have ever tried in our lives, in a pub in the historic center :-)

The Scaliger Castle in Villafranca di Verona... Yeah, it was not a very sunny day....

But before the spritz, a visit to the main reason to visit Villafranca di Verona is a must: the Scaliger Castle, the symbol of the city. Impossible not to notice it if you happen to be in these parts: the town was built around it, so even if you take a wrong turn, wherever you have to go, you will find it in front of you, behind you, or next to you. It was the same for us, who circumnavigated it two or three times by car, at night, because we couldn’t remember where the road to our hotel was and of course we were without a navigator :-)

History tells us that the construction of the Scaliger Castle of Villafranca ended in 1202, when the walls were finished. This was all a few years after the founding of the city, which took place on March 9, 1185, when the Council of Rectors of Verona, the highest administrative body of the city (the Scaliger dynasty would take power in the late thirteenth century, in 1262 to be exact), decided to establish a settlement on the border with the territories dominated by Mantua: the Veronese who moved to the new town were promised exemption from taxes (hence the reason for the name Villafranca, although originally the settlement was called Borgo Libero: the name changes, but the meaning does not). Construction work on the castle began soon after the foundation because the town was also founded with clear strategic intentions: it was to be the last Veronese outpost in a strategic area for communications between the Po Valley and the mountains.

The main tower (which was, however, remodeled in later periods) was erected in 1243 by Enrico da Egna, podestà of Verona (i.e., the highest city office before Scaliger rule). The last construction phase dates back to the years between 1345 and 1359, when Mastino II della Scala and Cangrande II strengthened and consolidated the castle’s structures to include it in the so-called Serraglio veronese, an imposing wall about thirteen kilometers long, which started from Borghetto, near Valeggio sul Mincio, passed through Villafranca and ended near Nogarole Rocca: it served to defend the southern border of Verona’s territory. All that remains of the Serraglio today are a few ruins scattered here and there in the countryside, in addition to the main fortifications (which are, precisely, those of Valeggio, Villafranca and Nogarole, along with the splendid fortified village of Borghetto to which we will return to devote an article on our site!).

The castle of Villafranca began to lose its importance towards the end of the fifteenth century, when the Venetians, who had conquered Verona in 1405, initiated a major consolidation of Verona’s defensive structures and fortifications. The town again came to play a leading role in the Risorgimento, because here (though not in the castle, but in a palace in Villafranca), theVillafranca armistice was signed between the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and the French Emperor Napoleon III, which marked the end of the Second War of Independence. The meeting between the two sovereigns took place in the aftermath of the battles of San Martino and Solferino: Napoleon III feared that the war against Austria, on the side of the Kingdom of Sardinia, if it had lasted, would have triggered the intervention of Prussia and, as the victor, he decided to propose to Franz Joseph the end of hostilities. The main consequence of the armistice, consisted in the cession of Lombardy to France (which then turned it over to the Kingdom of Sardinia: these were the premises for the birth of the Kingdom of Italy), but Venetia would remain under Austrian rule, along with the cities of Mantua and Peschiera, which had a very important strategic role for Austria as they were two of the four fortresses of the Quadrilateral system.

The castle enclosure

Walking through the Scaliger Castle of Villafranca is therefore a bit like walking through history, from the turbulent Italy of the Communes of the thirteenth century to the Unification of Italy through the vicissitudes of one of the richest seigniories of the fourteenth century and passing through the thousand-year history of the Most Serene Republic of Venice. Today the castle stands with its very large walled enclosure, crenellated and square-shaped, interspersed every now and then with a few towers, called torresine: there is one on each corner and one in the center of each side, except on the side facing Corso Vittorio Emanuele, where there is the rocchetta with the entrance and the main tower on which a clock was installed at the end of the 19th century. Some of the turrets are scudate, that is, they are open on one side, the inner side. Some of the fragments we find inside the castle (including the base of the main tower) are from the Roman period: in the Middle Ages it was in fact very common to reuse parts of ancient buildings for the construction of new ones, and it seems that for the Castle of Villafranca elements removed from an ancient building made at the time of the Roman emperor Tiberius were used.

The tower of the Scaliger Castle of Villafranca

The rocchetta that stands on the north side is preceded by a mighty entrance arch, which spans the moat (we can imagine that in ancient times there was a drawbridge!) and is surmounted by an aedicule where a crucifix now stands, but previously recorded the presence of a painting, also depicting a crucifix, by a local 18th-century artist, Jacopo Tumicelli (today the work is in the church of the Capuchin friars of Villafranca). The main body of the castle also houses a small church, dedicated to Christ the King, inside which are three canvases by Giovanni Battista Lanceni, an artist from Verona who worked at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. Next to the main tower stand two others: one of these, the one on the left, is called the prison tower, because in past eras the Scaliger Castle was also used as a prison. What is striking when observing the main body is that the battlements differ from those of the enclosure: in fact, the rocchetta has Ghibelline battlements, while the enclosure with its turrets, have Guelph battlements!

Today the castle is a venue for events, such as concerts (a rock music festival of international appeal is held there every year: in a few days Soundgarden and Arctic Monkeys, for example, will be playing there), rallies, and various kinds of events. But even when it is not used for these purposes, it is pleasant to be inside its enclosure, with its grounds entirely covered with grass: it is a way to relax, to admire a well-preserved medieval castle that is practically intact, despite later renovations, and to feel part of a place where events that changed the course of history took place.

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