A noble named Magnus founded Castell'Arquato around 756-758 on a hill above the Arda river, and by 1220 the Bishop of Piacenza had granted it self-government, launching centuries under the Visconti, Sforza and eventually Farnese and Bourbon rule.
The hilltop piazza still gathers its three great medieval buildings around one open space: the four-towered Rocca Viscontea, a keep-and-curtain fortress now holding a small museum; the Collegiata church, rebuilt after a 1117 earthquake and fronted by a Romanesque "Paradise Portico"; and the Palazzo del Podestà, the old seat of civic government. Beyond the walls, the Arda valley grows the grapes behind Gutturnio, the local red poured generously in the town's wine bars, and fossil-rich cliffs nearby have made the surrounding badlands a small geological park in their own right.
