The southeast original center, Beatrice Pia Obizzi’s literary salon in the sixteenth century, was enlarged between 1570 and 1573 by architect Andrea Valle and in 1648 Pio Enea II, Beatrice’s grandson, built the access avenue, the Elephant courtyard and rearranged the garden with ponds, waterfalls and boxwood mazes. The castle then passed to the Este family and then to the Habsburg who used it as a hunting lodge.
In 1929 it became Dalla Francesca family’s property, the current owners. The imposing structure (more than 350 rooms) encloses in the noble part an important cycle of frescoes painted by Giambattista Zelotti, Paolo Veronese’s pupil, where are celebrated Obizzi’s exploits.
