Visconti Castle, Gothic castle in Pavia, Italy
Visconti Castle is a Gothic fortress in Pavia featuring a square layout with four corner towers and pointed arches throughout its structure. The inner courtyards and outer walls display the ornamental details typical of 14th-century architecture.
Galeazzo II Visconti commissioned the castle in 1360, and construction finished within five years as a residential palace for the family. From the start, it was designed as an elegant seat rather than a military stronghold.
The castle's name comes from the Visconti family, who moved their court here from Milan. The western tower held the Visconti Library, which received books that had belonged to Petrarch and was moved to Paris in 1499. Since 1949 the Civic Museums have occupied the building, and the surviving frescoes include the Sala Azzurra's starry sky with Visconti devices.
The castle stands in the elevated northern part of Pavia, oriented toward Milan, and today houses the Pavia Civic Museums in its wings. Visitors enter through the courtyard, where the ground-floor portico and the first-floor loggiato of the four sides can be seen; the 16th-century artillery damage and lost frescoes mean the rooms themselves are largely bare.
The castle's western tower held the Visconti Library, a book collection begun by Galeazzo II and enlarged by Gian Galeazzo with volumes that had belonged to Petrarch. Geoffrey Chaucer is thought to have visited it in 1378; the library was moved to Paris in 1499.
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