The Castle of Passirano represents to date the best-preserved example of a communal shelter in Franciacorta. Located S-W of the town center, along the road that connects it to Bornato, the structure shows a square shape, within which the rooms are structured on three wings leaning against the perimeters and arranged around a central courtyard. The southern elevation has two towers with a circular base at the corners and a central entrance from which a drawbridge, now disappeared, departed. Along this elevation and the west elevation, moreover, a rampart is still visible today, further fortifying the castle. The rampart continues for a short distance to the quadrangular tower located in the middle of the eastern section of the curtain wall. Another tower, also square-based and partially preserved, is finally located in the N-W cantonment. The construction technique of the walls, which are tall and massive, places mostly large stones, pebbles and stones left exposed.
The Castle of Passirano, now privately owned and visible externally by a peaceful walk, is a jewel, a symbol of medieval Franciacorta.
Erected in the 1100s for defensive purposes, Passirano Castle retains its massive walls, the ancient moat on one side and the two semicircular towers including the Torre della Specola, used in the 18th century as an astronomical observatory. Of great visual impact is the Ghibelline battlements, of 17th-century origin. The entrance portal, on the other hand, dates from the 18th century.
It is the opinion of many that the castle would have been built following the establishment of the free commune, an event that prompted Passirano, as well as many other rural communities̀, to provide themselves with a structure of refuge for the most problematic periods̀ politically and militarily.
On the documentary level, the first attestation of the castle arises in 1438, when Gattamelata occupied it with his troops.
In his "Catastico bresciano," the noble politician and military man Giovanni da Lezze states that around 1610, about ten families lived there.
In 1722 it is established that the family of Count Fenaroli purchased it from the communitỳ passiranese.
Looking at the elevated structures, it seems quite clear to us that the present layout resembles in itself elements referable to different periods, but in the absence of architectural and archaeological investigations the question remains difficult to settle.
Structural configuration: square in shape, enclosed by high and massive walls, it is made of Sarnico stone in irregular blocks. The Ghibelline battlements, date from the seventeenth-century period.. Two semicircular towers distinguish this building: one, higher to the East; the other, lower to the West, also known as the "Specola Tower." Originally the castle of Passirano, called "Sera," was entirely surrounded by a moat that isolated the walls from the surrounding area. Today the moat is almost no longer visible because it is now almost completely covered and filled in. The gateway to the castle dates back to the 18th century. The interior preserves some older rooms to the northwest and others, more recent, that serve as storage and stables, obtained in the late 1700s as branches of the adjacent Villa Fassati Barba.
Construction era: 10th century - 14th century
Private property, Fassati di Balzola
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