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The Sforzesco Castle is a complex of buildings in the Italian city of Vigevano. The perimeter extends over an area of over two hectares, at the highest point of the city. The castle covers an area of 70,000 m² over 5 floors. It houses the Casimiro Ottone Art Gallery, the Lomellina National Archaeological Museum and the Pietro Bertolini International Shoe Museum. A bit of history : The history of the castle coincides for some centuries with that of the village of Vigevano, formerly called "Vicogebuin". In fact, until the mid-fifteenth century the area of the promontory, enclosed by the buildings that make up the current castle, was the site where the houses of the ancient village stood with the first municipal building and the primitive churches. The village originally surrounded by a rudimentary defense system in earth and wood, later replaced by a wall, had on the east side a square-shaped castle or recetto, initially consisting of a wooden structure, replaced before the 10th century by walls in bricks and separated from the town by a moat. This structure, corresponding to the current male, initially carried out the functions of shelter for fodder and animals and of extreme defense in case of danger, but with the passage of time and with the continuous adjustments and transformations it became, between the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century, the seat and stately home of the Visconti, who also began to take possession of the houses of the ancient village, starting their demolition. Emptying and demolition continued and completed by the Sforza in the second half of the 15th century, when the keep, further enlarged and embellished, becomes a ducal palace surrounded by stables and service buildings. village in its plan of territorial domination, deciding to make it a defensive stronghold inserted in the territorial chessboard of the castles located along the Adda and Ticino to defend the Visconti state. With this in mind, in 1341, he built a defense fortress (originally called lower, it takes the current name of old fortress as opposed to the new fortress built at the end of the 15th century), at a distance from the castle, on the east limit of the village which was now expanding out of the original perimeter. At the same time, the work of transforming the old castle into a new fortress headquarters and ducal residence begins, a building that in the new conformation has a quadrangular plan formed by crenellated walls with three buildings, towers at the corners and an entrance tower in the center of the anterior curtain. The expansion and embellishment works of the keep continue throughout the Visconti domain. In 1347 the two forts were joined by the so-called "covered road", a large fortified building 164 m long and 7.5 m wide which, standing out against the city panorama, allowed a quick connection between the castle and the surrounding countryside. In 1447, at the end of the Visconti dominion, the same population of Vigevano conquered municipal freedom and destroyed the external fortress. Freedom that ends already in 1449, when Vigevano is besieged by Bartolomeo Colleoni and Francesco I Sforza, husband of Bianca Maria daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, and new lord of Milan. After the conquest, the Sforza repaired the damage of the siege and doubled the central part of the keep towards the outside, incorporating the remains of the south-east tower destroyed during the siege. Galeazzo Maria Sforza in 1466, as soon as he succeeded his father Francesco, ordered new interventions that definitively transform the keep into the ducal palace and, taking note of the defensive function of the ancient village walls, he allowed the construction of houses in the external moat, of no higher height. at the wall. In 1472 the new Duke intervened on two ancient buildings, placed along the southern wall of the ancient village and used as a stable, raising them and modifying the ground floor with the insertion of a double colonnade with cross vaults and new windows. In 1475 he created the bridge with loggia, located south of the keep, while shortly before his death he began the construction of the falconry building, later completed by Ludovico il Moro, regent the duchy in the name of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza. With Ludovico il Moro, born in Vigevano, the Sforza project is implemented in interventions of significant proportions and qualities, completing the process of transforming the castle into a residence. The courtyard, originally occupied by the ancient village, was emptied of residual buildings, the third stable, called Ludovico's for this reason, and the kitchen building, built with the demolition of the ancient church of Sant'Ambrogio and connected to the male by a bridge building, thus closing the circuit of buildings surrounding the large courtyard. The keep is enlarged on the east side with the creation of a hanging garden enclosed by two porticoed buildings designed by Bramante and open to the east. Of the Bramante complex today, after the collapse of the loggia leaning against the covered road and the emptying of the garden with the lowering to its current level, only the southern building called the "ladies' lodge" remains. Bramante also owes part of the pictorial decoration that adorned the complex of buildings overlooking the courtyard, of which traces remain today on the walls of Ludovico's stable and the elevation of the ancient municipal tower, which towards 1476 had already been raised with new battlements and corbels to house the bells of the demolished church of Santa Maria, built in three parts, the second with a belfry and the third with an octagonal body covered by a spire. The splendor of the Sforza dominion ends with Francesco II Sforza who completes the pictorial decorations of the ducal palace. From the first half of the nineteenth century the most significant changes were made. Before 1824 the burial of the west side of the moat and the demolition of the curtain wall of the keep with the ravelin took place, while in 1824 the door that opened towards the church of San Pietro Martire was closed and suppressed. In 1855, following a collapse of part of the central body of the keep and of the ancient staircase placed close to the left sleeve (which was no longer rebuilt), it was rebuilt by the engineer. Inverardi, the collapsed part with the modification of the part towards the courtyard which involved the reconstruction of the facade in Tudor style, the shifting of access to the cellar floors from right to left and the construction of a new staircase inside; the same engineer designs the entrance from Corso della Repubblica in neo-Gothic style with an atrium that incorporates a span of the eastern stable. In the second half of the century, the burying of the moat was completed and the excavation of the hanging garden, now called the courtyard of the Duchess, was carried out with the reconstruction of the body close to the covered road, a reconstruction that led to the disappearance of the ducal chapel of the Sforza era and the transfer of nine frescoes (eight of which attributed to Bernardino Ferrari) to the Town Hall. Other interventions are made to adapt the complex to the new military functions by equipping it with new structures. In 1836, in the southern part of the old fortress, a large building was built for indoor riding, today called "cavalry", a second horsewoman (demolished following a collapse in 1979) of smaller dimensions was built in the northern part of the fortress at the end of 'Nineteenth century. During the second half of the century the premises of the “prestino” (ancient municipal oven located east of the tower and purchased by the military administration in 1837) and those of the ducal kitchens were renovated, raised by one floor and used as an officers' club; the remaining parts of the moat are buried; the bridge towards the former kitchens was totally transformed into a terraced portico, while the one towards the falconer was remodeled with the construction of three arches in place of the masonry; the roof garden, already partially unpaved at the beginning of the century, emptied up to its present level; rebuilt the body leaning against the covered road and remodelled the interiors of the stables. In 1980, after a decade of abandonment following the cessation of use by the military, the restoration and recovery work of the large complex of buildings called the castle began.The National Archaeological Museum of Lomellina, inaugurated in 1998 and enlarged in 2018, collects the archaeological evidence from the Lomellino area. In 2009, the Pietro Bertolini International Footwear Museum was transferred to the rooms located above the second stable, consisting of the donation made in 1948 by the industrialist Pietro Bertolini to the Municipality of Vigevano of his rich personal collection.