Location: 18 km (11 mi) South of Reggio Emilia Map
Canossa Castle is located in a commune of Canossa 18 km (11 mi)
South of Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia province of Italy. Canossa
Castle was constructed in 940 by Adalberto Atto, son of Sigifredo of
Lucca. Lombard chieftains needed this strategic hill to defend their
lands against intrusions of other barbarian tribes. Subsequent
improvements made the stronghold one of the best defended castles in
the country. Canossa Castle became particularly famous as a site of
reconciliation between king Henry IV and Roman pope Gregory VII
during Investiture Controversy in 1077.
Origin
The fortress was built around the year 940 by Adalberto
Atto, son of Sigifredo of Lucca, prince of Lombard lineage. In addition
to the manor house, on the top of the cliff, the castle included a
monastery in which twelve monks of the Cluniac Benedictine order usually
resided and the church of Sant'Apollonio. It was defended by a triple
circle of walls and between the first and second, the lowest ones, there
were shelter buildings for the armed men and servants and the buildings
that made up the villages. During the Middle Ages the fortress was
impregnable and Queen Adelaide, widow of Lothair II, king of Italy, had
safe refuge in it, who in 950 took refuge in Canossa to defend herself
from the Marquis of Ivrea, Berengario II, who for over 3 years besieged,
without result, the fortress.
Henry IV's journey to Canossa
The main episode for which Canossa is famous is the conciliation of the
emperor Henry (or Arrigo) IV with the pope Gregory VII in the year 1077,
of which Matilda was the protagonist, and from which derives the saying
going to Canossa, widespread in all European languages.
After
Matilda
After the death of the great countess Matilde di Canossa,
which took place in Bondeno di Roncore on 24 July 1115, a great struggle
arose for the inheritance of Matilda's patrimony (which also included
the nearby castle of Rossena and the Rossenella) having this in life
made solemn donation of all his possessions to the Church.
With
ups and downs the castle belonged to the successors of Matilde, then to
the Reggio citizens, who destroyed it down to its foundations in 1255,
then again to the Canossas, then to Giberto da Correggio, who died in
1321. At the end of this year the castle returned to Municipality of
Reggio which held it until 1402. In the fourteenth century the
Viscontis, lords of Reggio Emilia since 1371, equipped the castle with
firearms. In 1392 the Visconti castellan Pisanello de' Pisi stole the
relics of Sant'Apollonio, San Vittore and Santa Corona from the church
of the fortification and sent them to Ottone Mandelli, who donated them
to the church of San Francesco in Pavia.
In 1402 Simone, Guido
and Alberto Canossa took possession of the castle again; these in the
year 1409 ceded the fortress definitively to the Estensi, who, except
for a few short periods opposed (in 1557 by Ottavio Farnese, duke of
Parma) kept it until 1796.
In 1502 Ercole I appointed captain of
the fortress Ludovico Ariosto who resided there for almost six
consecutive months, and in 1593 the castle became a fief of the
Rondinelli counts.
In 1642 Duke Francesco I invested Canossa with
the Valentini family who held the feud until 1796.
In that year
the inhabitants of Canossa rebelled by joining the Republic of Reggio
and Napoleon I, with a decree of 8 June 1805, established the
Municipality of Canossa which in 1809 was united with that of Quattro
Castella.
In 1815, after the Restoration, the Municipality of
Quattro Castella was part of that of San Polo and in 1819 the Valentini
counts obtained from the Duke to repossess the feud of Canossa. They
remained the owners until 1878, the year in which the State bought the
fortress, declaring it a National Monument. The castle has been the
subject of a series of restoration and recovery interventions. These
interventions were also carried out thanks to funds from the Lotto game,
on the basis of the provisions of law 662/96.