Discover Castello di Monte Ursino, Noli

The castello di Monte Ursino stands in a dominant position on the hill from which it takes its name, above the historic centre of Noli, in the province of Savona.

Its hill is where the town began. Noli was founded three times, and the first was on the summit of Monte Ursino. The same hill conserves ancient elements and constructions of the primitive settlement of Noli during the dominion of the Del Carretto family in the twelfth century.

The castle and the town wall were one project. The first structure was built from the twelfth century, as was the wall circuit connected to it in defence of the borgo — the circuit that in the thirteenth century came to include more than seventy town towers.

What stands now is a sixteenth-century answer to gunpowder. The present aspect and form are datable to the rebuilding of 1552, by captain Andrea da Bergamo and on the advice of the Republic of Genoa, above all in adapting the towers and walls to the new instruments of war. (Borghi più belli d'Italia dates the Genoese renovations to 1522.)

The type is a keep inside an enceinte, and the geometry of each is the point. A circular keep — the maschio — stands within a polygonal enclosure of irregular form.

Round keeps and irregular circuits are both deliberate. A cylinder has no corner for shot to break off; an irregular polygon is the shape a wall takes when it follows a summit rather than a plan.

Two towers in the enclosure are visibly later. The record says so explicitly, and they are the most legible evidence of rebuilding on the site.

The 1552 campaign was about weapons, not appearance. Its stated purpose was the adaptation of the towers and walls to the new instruments of defensive warfare — thicker, lower, angled work that can absorb a cannonball and mount one.

The wall below belongs to the same system. The town's circuit was connected to the castle from the twelfth century; castle and borgo were one defensive argument, which is why the castle sits where it can see the whole of it.

Build on the summit first, then build down. Noli's first foundation was on this hilltop and the castle inherited the site; the wall circuit defending the borgo was connected to it from the twelfth century, so the fortification grew downhill from here rather than up to it.

The enclosure was fitted to the ground. A polygonal, irregular circuit is the cheapest strong wall on a summit: each straight run follows a usable stretch of rock, and the angles fall where the ground turns.

The keep is round because round survives. A circular maschio presents no edge to be broken off and no flat face to be struck squarely — the same reasoning that put cylindrical towers on castles all over Italy before artillery, and kept them useful after it.

In 1552 the walls were thickened rather than raised. Adapting towers and walls ai nuovi strumenti di difesa bellici is the standard sixteenth-century retrofit: lower profiles, greater mass, platforms that can carry guns.

And the state that paid for it was tiny. The Republic of Noli reached about 4 square kilometres and some 1,500 inhabitants in the eighteenth century. The scale of the fortification against the scale of the state is the thing to keep in mind on the climb.

Can I visit the castle?

No opening hour or admission is published by anyone, and the comune publishes none for any building in its territory. The encyclopaedia's article on the castle calls it visitable and municipally owned, but that article carries an explicit warning that it has no sources at all, so this page does not rely on it.

How old is it?

The first structure dates from the twelfth century, together with the wall circuit that defended the borgo. What stands now is the 1552 rebuilding. Borghi più belli d'Italia puts the castle in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries with Genoese renovations it dates to 1522.

Why 1552 and not 1522?

Because the 1552 account is the more specific one: it names captain Andrea da Bergamo, the advice of the Republic of Genoa and the purpose — adapting towers and walls to new weapons. This page carries 1552 and records that Borghi says 1522. Nothing read settles which is the slip.

Is this where Noli started?

Yes. The town was founded three times and the first was on the summit of this hill; the second was beside San Paragorio, the third inside the present walls.

Who built it?

The Del Carretto, marquises of Finale, who held the territory in the twelfth century. Noli separated from their marquisate when it became a republic on 7 August 1192.

What else was fortified here?

The Forte del Portello of 1565, built to defend the port and now gone; the torre dello Sperone it was linked to, which held the prison for the gravest offenders on its top floor; and the Fortezza dell'Eremo at Capo Noli.

How far is Capo Noli from here?

About three kilometres of path to the summit of the promontory, at 276 metres.