Castelbrando with its walls full of history dominates the ancient village of Cison di Valmarino, a setting immersed in the green of the Veneto hills of Prosecco.
History
Two thousand years of history pass through the walls of this manor, located in a place inhabited since prehistoric times by Paleovenetian populations.
Castelbrando was born in the first years after Christ as a "castrum", a station, a watchtower and a lodge of about two hundred Roman soldiers, here settled in defense of the Roman road Claudia Augusta.
Also the present SPA testifies the Roman period, as this area is obtained around an ancient Roman Bath.
Over the centuries Castelbrando has evolved, always maintaining its function as a fortress and historical residence of queens, emperors, leaders and illustrious personages: suffice it to mention the stays of Claudio Augusto, Teodolinda (Queen of the Longobards), Charlemagne and Ottone I.
In the second half of the 1200s, the Lords of Camino expanded the structure, surrounding it with a Guelph battlements and adding a central tower.
In the second half of 1500, with the arrival of the Brandolini family, under the control of the Republic of Venice, a further expansion took place in its central part: the heart of this wing is the Sansovino theater, a jewel of Venetian architecture decorated with frescoes , arms and halberds and two impressive fireplaces donated by Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus.
The last to rise is the eighteenth-century part, designed by architect Ottavio Scotti: a linear structure inspired by the classic taste of Venetian villas, to which an innovative "air conditioning system" was added.
The counts kept the castle until 1959, when it was sold to the Salesian fathers and sold by them in 1997 to the Quaternario Investimenti S.p.A.
Today the castle, after careful restoration, offers in addition to the Congress Center that can accommodate up to 1,800 people, exhibitions and workshops, even a four-star hotel, two restaurants, bars and wine bars, a spa with Roman baths, six museum areas freely accessible to the guests, a baroque church, built in 1700 on a pre-existent first Roman Catholic temple and then a 50-hectare park and forest.