Castello di Mongialino, Mineo, Italy

Castello di Mongialino was first time mentioned in the mid-12th century by Muslim geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi. Later it become a feudal castle of Normans and their descendants. Today it is ruined, but the massive keep exits quite well-preserved.

User Reviews

orazio Allegra (3 months ago)
Historic place but difficult to reach bad roads ..

black hero seguenzia (4 months ago)
Nice but not taken care of

Basilio Sapienza (7 months ago)
Beautiful castle, unfortunately left in total abandonment, the structure has serious structural damage and is in serious danger of collapsing, safety work is urgently needed before it is too late.

Sergio Consoli (13 months ago)
The Castello di Mongialino is actually an unsafe ruin with few parts left standing. Despite the state of total abandonment, however, it is an extremely fascinating construction. One in a kind. The visible part is the main tower inside which a smaller tower is built for collecting rainwater. The curved lintels are beautiful and elegant. Access to the castle is not easy: the provincial road to travel by car is quite uneven. In some places completely covered with earth and stones, in others even collapsed. Once in the vicinity of the castle, you have to leave the car and tackle a small climb through the rocks to reach the height of the castle. The view is breathtaking and repays for the effort.

Luca.p.l (18 months ago)
Nice place for adventurers, nature lovers and photography enthusiasts but the road to reach it is in bad shape. We equipped with off-road and reached the site. On the way we stopped several times to make more shots. When we arrived at the place we continued for about 10/15 walking to what remains of the castle.

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The famous Italian Medici family have given two queens to France: Catherine, the spouse of Henry II, and Marie, widow of Henry IV, who built the current Luxembourg palace. Maria di Medici had never been happy at the Louvre, still semi-medieval, where the fickle king, did not hesitate to receive his mistresses. The death of Henry IV, assassinated in 1610, left the way open for Marie's project. When she became regent, she was able to give special attention to the construction of an imposing modern residence that would be reminiscent of the Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens in Florence, where she grew up. The development of the 25-hectare park, which was to serve as a jewel-case for the palace, began immediately.

The architect, Salomon de Brosse, began the work in 1615. Only 16 years later was the palace was completed. Palace of Luxembourg affords a transition between the Renaissance and the Classical period.

In 1750, the Director of the King's Buildings installed in the wing the first public art-gallery in France, in which French and foreign canvases of the royal collections are shown. The Count of Provence and future Louis XVIII, who was living in Petit Luxembourg, had this gallery closed in 1780: leaving to emigrate, he fled from the palace in June 1791.

During the French Revolution the palace was first abandoned and then moved as a national prison. After that it was the seat of the French Directory, and in 1799, the home of the Sénat conservateur and the first residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul of the French Republic. The old apartments of Maria di Medici were altered. The floor, which the 80 senators only occupied in 1804, was built in the middle of the present Conference Hall.

Beginning in 1835 the architect Alphonse de Gisors added a new garden wing parallel to the old corps de logis, replicating the look of the original 17th-century facade so precisely that it is difficult to distinguish at first glance the old from the new. The new senate chamber was located in what would have been the courtyard area in-between.

The new wing included a library (bibliothèque) with a cycle of paintings (1845–1847) by Eugène Delacroix. In the 1850s, at the request of Emperor Napoleon III, Gisors created the highly decorated Salle des Conférences, which influenced the nature of subsequent official interiors of the Second Empire, including those of the Palais Garnier.

During the German occupation of Paris (1940–1944), Hermann Göring took over the palace as the headquarters of the Luftwaffe in France, taking for himself a sumptuous suite of rooms to accommodate his visits to the French capital. Since 1958 the Luxembourg palace has been the seat of the French Senate of the Fifth Republic.

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Castello di Mongialino

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