Castello del Catajo

Palace-castle whose name is shrouded in many legends, seen from afar it can resemble Eastern fantasies, with its rhythm of terraces and unusual sculptures. Built in 1570 by Marquis Pio Enea degli Obizzi on a pre-existing hunting lodge. The Obizzi, captains of fortune originally from Burgundy, arrived in Italy following Emperor Henry II in 1007: they served Lucca, then Venice, for which Pio Enea fought, from whom we take the invention of the howitzer (= Obizzi). In the noble floor's halls, Giovan Battista Zelotti, a student of Veronese, frescoed in the second half of the 16th century the stories of the family, tracing its historical development in service to various cities and lords (room of Venice, of Lucca, of the pope, etc.), while Pio Enea II in the 17th century made Catajo an important artistic center, with the construction of a theater with sixteen boxes where his works were performed. It was home to important artistic collections (armory, archaeological gallery, library, numismatic cabinet, etc.), particularly enriched by Tommaso, the last marquis of the house who built the museum, a wing of the castle 73 meters long in which the archaeological collections were organized. Dying in the early 19th century, he left everything in inheritance to the last heir of the Este family and then to the Habsburgs, who had one of their summer castles here: they are responsible for the construction of the cubic building towards the mountain to accommodate the court.