Castello del Baradello
Castello del Baradello stands on a hill about 430 metres above Como, within Spina Verde Regional Park. Hiking trails connect the city to this fortification, whose elevated position overlooks Como and the lake. The square tower remains the clearest feature, rising about 27.5 metres from an eight-metre square base.
The hill held Comum Oppidum during the first millennium BC, while Byzantine walls and the Chapel of Saint Nicholas date from the sixth or seventh century. Lombards took the stronghold in 588, and Frederick Barbarossa helped restore it in 1158 before granting it to Como’s citizens in 1178. Azzone Visconti enlarged the fortification after 1335, but Charles V ordered most of it dismantled in 1527, leaving the main tower.
A smaller quadrangular tower once housed the castellan, and Napoleone della Torre was buried in the chapel after dying here in 1278. The surviving tower now contains a small museum with archaeological finds from the surrounding area.
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