Castello di Marmirolo, Palace in Marmirolo, Italy

The Castello di Marmirolo was a 12th-century fortress with walls and a moat in the centre of Marmirolo, where the civic tower and town hall now stand. Within its walls stood the Palazzo Gonzaga, built as a holiday residence. Only a remodelled tower survives beside the town hall in Piazza Roma.

Built in the 12th century with walls and a moat, the castle passed around 1200 to the Corradi-Gonzaga family, who made it their residence. In 1209 Guido Corradi hosted King Otto IV there. After Ludovico I Gonzaga rose to power in Mantua in 1328, the castle stood uninhabited until 1440, when Marquis Gianfrancesco Gonzaga returned.

The Gonzaga family brought painters Lorenzo Leonbruno and Francesco Bonsignori to decorate the castle rooms, and Giulio Romano frescoed some halls between 1536 and 1539. These commissions marked the fortified residence as a Gonzaga retreat rather than a permanent court.

The only surviving part of the castle is the modified tower, which stands beside the town hall on Piazza Roma in the centre of Marmirolo. The tower can be viewed from the square; there is no castle interior to visit.

In 1209 Guido Corradi hosted King Otto IV at the castle while the king was travelling to Rome to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III. The visit shows that the fortress, held by the family who became lords of Mantua, was a stop fit for a sovereign.