The castle of Montalto Dora, which stands at an altitude of 405 meters on Mount Crovero and is reflected in Lake Pistono, in the morainic amphitheater of Ivrea, dates back to the mid-12th century. It has undergone many destructions, rebuildings and renovations over the centuries. Privately owned, the castle is an integral part of the Roman village on which it stands and has an irregular square plan with a double wall. A high tower (the keep) dominates the internal part, which houses the annexed chapel, the rooms that can be visited in part and the guard walkway. The castle of Montalto Dora dates back to the first half of the 12th century (it is mentioned in a document from about 1140 which mentions it as castrum monsalti) with a tower and a wall that served as a defensive fortress. Its military importance derived from the possibility of controlling the access road to the Valle d'Aosta as well as the underlying via Francigena [1]. During the 14th and 15th centuries the castle underwent expansions and alterations aimed at strengthening its defense capabilities which led to the imposing structure which it has maintained over time. There were many families that held the manor in possession. Entrusted under the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Ivrea which granted the entire Montalto valley as a fief to the lords of Settimo Vittone in the 12th century, the castle then passed in the 14th century to become part of the possessions of the Savoys who in 1403 made it a fief to the house of the De Jordano di Bard under the lordship of the Enrico counts who continued the building work. During its history, the castle underwent multiple attacks, sometimes devastating. Among them we should mention the one that occurred during the siege of Ivrea in 1641 by the French troops of the Marquis d'Harcourt, at war against the duchy of Savoy: on that occasion, in fact, the inside of the building was dismantled, while they remained in the external structures are largely intact. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the castle passed into the ownership of the Vallesa family who held it until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the family died out. It then became the property of Count Severino of the Casana barons who began to restore and enhance it. Thus it was that around 1890 the castle underwent restoration and recovery work led by the architects Carlo Nigra and Alfredo D'Andrade, creators of the medieval village of Turin, assuming its current appearance. It has belonged to the Ramezzana family since 1956.
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Captain
Core User of DJI
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Lovely location.