An eclectic castle between Moorish and Gothic
In the Bolognese Apennines, on a rocky spur overlooking the Reno valley, near Grizzana Morandi, stands one of the strangest and most fascinating buildings in Italy: the Rocchetta Mattei, a fairy-tale castle of towers, domes, battlements and minarets, which mixes Moorish, Gothic, medieval and Art Nouveau styles. It was built from 1850 by Count Cesare Mattei, a Bolognese nobleman, politician and self-taught physician, inventor of a medical method called "electrohomeopathy", based on remedies made from plants and on mysterious "electricity", which made him famous throughout Europe and the world; patients came from far away to be treated here, and his remedies were sold in many countries.
Mattei built the castle on the ruins of a medieval fortress and lived there until his death in 1896, and his heirs continued the work in the early twentieth century. The interior is a sequence of surprising rooms: the most famous is the Cortile dei Leoni, a courtyard inspired by the Alhambra of Granada, with arches, columns and a fountain, the chapel with Moorish striped arches, the Sala dei Novanta, the music hall and the room where the count received his guests. After decades of abandonment, the Rocchetta was bought and restored by the Fondazione Carisbo and reopened to the public in 2015. In the village of Grizzana, the painter Giorgio Morandi spent his summers, and his house-studio can be visited.
Tip: visits are guided only and must be booked online; nearby, the Etruscan city of Marzabotto and the memorial of Monte Sole are worth a stop.
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