Gropparello Castle, Medieval castle in Gropparello, Italy

Gropparello Castle stands on an ophiolitic rock outcrop above a ravine cut by the Vezzeno stream, in the municipality of Gropparello in the province of Piacenza. Two square towers of pale tan and grey stone rise among trees: a tall keep with a flat top and small arched windows, and a second tower with a crenellated top. Between and below them, a lower curved wall with a row of arched openings sits against the hillside.

Built around 789 on the site of a Roman castrum from the 2nd or 3rd century BC that guarded the road to Veleia, the castle was granted to the bishops of Piacenza by Charlemagne in 810. In 1255 the Ghibelline troops of Oberto II Pallavicino took it and demolished its walls, but the Guelphs retook it; in 1260 they defeated Pallavicino's 400 soldiers in the Battle of the 400 Foot Soldiers. The Anguissola held it from 1599 until the line died out with Gaetano Anguissola in the 19th century.

Until the 19th century the castle was called Rocca di Cagnano, while Gropparello named the surrounding territory; the toponym comes from the Lombard root grop, the rocky formation the castle stands on. Tradition holds that Rosania Fulgosio, wife of the lord Pietrone da Cagnano, was walled up alive in a room of the castle in the late 13th century after betraying him, and her spirit is said to wander the building.

The castle stands on an ophiolitic rock above the Vezzeno ravine, reached from Gropparello by paths along the spur; wear sturdy shoes for the uneven, steep ground. The site is part of the Associazione dei Castelli del Ducato di Parma, Piacenza e Pontremoli circuit.

The castle was known as the Rocca di Cagnano until the 19th century; the name Gropparello, from the Lombard root grop for the rocky height, originally meant the surrounding territory rather than the fortress itself. Tradition holds that Rosania Fulgosio, wife of the lord Pietrone da Cagnano, was walled up alive in one of the rooms in the late 13th century after betraying him, and her spirit is said to wander the building.