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FORTRESS OF BENTIVOGLIO
Via Contessa Matilde 10, 40053 Bazzano
CALL
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Mon. - Fri. 3 -7 pm: Sat. 9 am- noon: 3 - 7 pm: Sun. 3 -7 pm: Closed Mondays Roccadeibentivoglio.it 
http://www.roccadeibentivoglio.it
fondazione@roccadeibentivoglio.it-
Guided tours of the castle and the museum are available daily, by reservation only, for groups of adults. The two-hour tour costs € 70,00. Call one of the guides at +393397612628 for reservations.
- Despite the legend that Bazzano Castle was ordered built by Mathilda of Tuscany, its origins actually date back to before the year 1000, although the exact date cannot be ascertained. In 1038 the Bishop of Modena, Guiberto, ceded the castle and St. Stephen's Church to the Marquis Bonifacio of Canossa, father of Mathilda, who inherited it at the age of 9. The first fortress walls were built in 1218. Over the course of the 13th century, the castle was attacked by the Bolognese twice, in 1228 and again in 1247, when they managed to conquer and demolish it. The fortress was built by Azzo VIII d’Este between 1296 and 1311. After 1371 the marquises of Este expanded the fortifications. It has maintained its present appearance since the Renaissance, when Giovanni II Bentivoglio converted it to a \"delightful\" country holiday manor house. The ground floor halls display the Bentivoglio family crest (a red, seven-toothed saw) and that of the Sforza family (blue and white wave and dragon with a man in its mouth), recalling the marriage between Giovanni Bentivoglio and Ginevra Sforza. The Castle later became headquarters of the Capitanato della Montagna and, in the centuries which followed, fulfilled a strange array of functions: prison (where poet Ugo Foscolo was incarcerated in 1799), theatre, barracks, school and private residence (until the 1960s). Today the Castle houses the Multi-Municipal Public Media Library, the “Arsenio Crespellani” Civic Museum and the headquarters of the Rocca dei Bentivoglio Fondation.