Castiglione Del Lago - Main Sights

Main Sights

The Castello del Leone ("Fortress of the Lion") was built by Emperor Frederick II. The pentagonal-shaped castle, was completed in 1247 CE by the monk-architect Elia from Cortona. The castle features square towers in four of its corners and a triangular shaped bastion, or donjon, known as the Mastio in the other. The castle was designed to give its owners strategic control over all of Lake Trasimeno. The castle has withstood a number of sieges over the subsequent centuries.

The Palazzo del Comune (Town Hall) was built by Ascanio della Corgna in Renaissance style, designed by the architect Vignola. It is now a civic museum and gallery. The palazzo has by a long, covered corridor connecting to the castle. Renaissance era frescoes by the Pescara-born artist Giovanni Pandolfi and the Florentine artist Salvio Savini adorn the main floor inside. In 1574, the artist Niccolò Circignani, known as "Il Pomarancio", added paintings and other decorations to one of the most interesting rooms in the palazzo, the so-called Room of the Exploits of the overlord Ascanio della Corgna.

The only other building of particular note is the finely stucco-ed Church of Santa Maria Maddalena, done on a Greek-cross plan. The church has a neo-classical pronaos and, inside, a panel painted in 1580 by Eusebio da San Giorgio.

Read more about this topic:  Castiglione Del Lago

Famous quotes containing the words main and/or sights:

    The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms ... you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.
    Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)

    You shall see men you never heard of before, whose names you don’t know,... and many other wild and noble sights before night, such as they who sit in parlors never dream of.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)