Malpaga Castle is one of the most important Lombard buildings of the 1300s that, with its intact beauty and priceless cultural value, dominates an expanse of 300 hectares in the bucolic setting within the Serio River Park.
Castello di Malpaga History
With its intact beauty and priceless cultural value, Malpaga Castle dominates an expanse of 300 hectares of agricultural fields within the Serio River Park. It is certainly one of the most important Lombard buildings, both for architectural interest and for the historical events connected to it.
Residence and fief of the valiant leader Bartolomeo Colleoni, Captain General of all the militias of the Republic of Venice, is the subject of a series of interventions to make it resistant to assaults with the raising of the walls, the construction of accommodation for troops and a second moat. The castle is also surrounded with houses for its armigers, stables and fortified gates, making the complex a highly inaccessible citadel, in the center of which the castle becomes a destination for high-ranking and highly cultured personalities.
In 1458 Colleoni settled there, as in a real palace, with his wife Tisbe Martinengo. Here he holds court, hosting artists and receiving the Greats of the time, as on the occasion of the visit of Cristiano I °, King of Denmark in 1474 traveling as a pilgrim to Rome with the Duke of Saxony and an escort of 200 knights.
Malpaga remained in the possession of the Martinengo-Colleoni family until 1880. In that year it was purchased by the Roncalli Counts. In 1924 it passed to the Crespi family. Today it is one of the most important land properties and belongs to Malpaga Spa.
The Castle is still in a splendid context of cultivated fields, woods, irrigation ditches and farmhouses not far from the Serio river which, with the nearby Prealpi Orobie, form a naturalistic architectural complex of great value.
In the village you can stay at the "Locanda Dei Nobili Viaggiatori", where each room boasts a personalized decor, each with the name of a noble traveler guest who stayed at the Malpaga Castle at the time of Bartolomeo Colleoni. You can taste typical dishes of the area in the restaurant and breakfast with seasonal products, strictly from Bergamo and zero kilometer, in the name of traditions, taste and authenticity.