Castle of the Unnamed, Medieval castle in Vercurago, Italy

The Castle of the Unnamed, historically known as the Rocca di Vercurago, stands on the Tremasasso, a limestone crag rising about 200 metres at the foot of Monte Magnodeno. Its ruins include a small square tower with a shallow red-tiled roof and a tiny cross, a taller ruined square tower with a broken flat top, and rough light-grey stone walls running along the ridge. A lower zigzagging wall descends the slope, and a tall metal cross rises between the towers.

The castle's site on the Tremasasso was occupied from the early Iron Age by the Golasecca culture, and excavations in 1988 found pottery from as early as the 11th century BC. In the 13th century the fortress belonged to the Benaglio family, vassals of the Della Torre of Milan, and after the Peace of Lodi it passed to the Republic of Venice. With the Spanish arrival in Lombardy it was joined to the Duchy of Milan, and it was razed in 1799 during Suvorov's Italian campaign, then partly rebuilt by the Somasca fathers at the end of the 19th century.

Popular tradition holds that Alessandro Manzoni drew on this fortress for the castle of the Innominato in 'I promessi sposi'; the novel never names it, and the link rests on local lore rather than documented fact. The name 'Castello dell'Innominato' comes from that character. In the castle tower is a sculpted scene from the life of Saint Girolamo Emiliani, the last of the chapels of the Sacro Monte di Somasca.

You can reach the site from Lecco by heading toward Vercurago, where parking and public transit options are available nearby. The path to the top is steep and demands some physical effort, so good footwear is recommended.

Excavations by the Lecco archaeological museum in 1988 found a Golasecca culture settlement on the Tremasasso, occupied from the 9th to the 5th century BC, with stone foundations and pottery fragments, some from the 11th century BC. A fragment of Attic pottery shows trade with the Etruscans of Forcello near Mantua.