A fortress has crowned this spur above Varenna since at least the early 12th century, though local legend pushes its origins back to the Lombard queen Theodolinda in the 6th century, watching for enemy ships on Lake Como below.
What stands today is largely the medieval castle, opened to visitors only in 1999 after private owners restored it, with a squat keep, a small botanical garden planted into the old courtyard, and views that take in Varenna, Bellagio's promontory, and the lake's central fork in one sweep. The keep houses an unexpected exhibit: fossils and a reconstruction of Lariosaurus, a small Triassic marine reptile first identified from finds near this lake and now something of a local mascot. A Eurasian eagle-owl named Artù lived at the castle for years as its resident bird of prey.
