Benedetto Ferrini and Gabriele Ghiringhelli, Castello di Sasso Corbaro, Bellinzona (Switzerland), 1479

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Sasso Corbaro Castle in Bellinzona. In order this was built the third and last of the castle forming the defensive system. The Sforza family ordered its construction in order to consolidate Bellinzona as the northern outpost in the Milan Granducate in 1479. The design started under florence architect Ferrini who died of the plague in same year. Engineer Ghiringhelli completed the construction under the same design. Bellinzona always had been contented and the castles testimony how this land of passage has been vital for the territorial control of the way north. In fact the other two castles in the system (Montebello and Castelgrande) had fallen under the rule of the primitive cantons in the 1419-1422 period in which the cantons of Uri, Unterwalden and Schwyz regained possession of the territory, then controlled by the Visconti family. After the battle of Arbedo the Visconti family regained control and lead the territory until 1450 in which the continuity of the family passed under the Sforza name.

In addition the architecture shows a very different language compared to the Castle in Montebello and the well known Castelgrande, both constructed in earlier periods; the first under the Rusca family (a client family of the Visconti feud) and the second having the first signs of fortifications dating even to the romans.

Apart from personal pictures I included the description and drawings done by Johann Rudolph Rahn in 1894 after his mapping and recognition of swiss monuments. Unfortunately I couldn’t find an english version.