The Castle
Quattro Torri Castle
A jewel of the Renaissance
The Castle is located in Arignano, about 25 km from Turin.
It is a little-known castle because it is in a secluded position in the town and is not visible to those who do not know where it is, while it is easy to see it if you take the road that leads from the hamlet of Tetti Chiaffredo to the center of the town.
It is the only Renaissance-style castle in Piedmont and perhaps in all of Northern Italy preserved without ever having undergone any transformation due to subsequent additions. There is no precise information on the period of its construction but its origin is now accredited by the will of Count Ludovico Costa degli Albussani who, following the destruction of the nearby fortress which occurred in 1396 whose renovation was too expensive, decided to build a dwelling no longer for military purposes but of a residential nature.
Of Michelozian taste, as Cavallari Murat writes, its construction was then dated between 1407 and 1430 but only on three sides.
The fourth side, the eastern one, was built after 1576 at the behest of Countess Caterina who lived there with her family until the beginning of the 1600s. The name of the architect is not known but it is certainly a work of local masters.
Even today the castle is surrounded by a large park delimited by a nineteenth-century brick wall, even if the valuable ornamental plants that populated it have been sold or cut down by various owners over the years.
The subdivisions of the properties of the Costa family during the 20th century led to the construction of a dividing brick wall between the castle of the four towers and the other properties of the counts, including the stables, the ancient fortress and the Villa Bianca.
After being sold by the Costa family to various owners and used for years for the most disparate activities (including, unfortunately, a galvanization which almost completely destroyed the interior and ruined some portions of the exterior), the Castello Quattro Torri was purchased around 1980 by our family and through a long and careful restoration it has been brought back to its former glory.
Today the castle is a private home and opens periodically for guided tours, advertised on this site and on the main tourist networks. From May 2024 it is also possible to stay at the castle in one of the five rooms recently renovated and open to the public.
