Cremolino was the main feud of the Monferrato branch of the Malaspina marquises, lords of the Lunigiana. The castle was built in the late 13th century, around a tower that dates from the year 1000, by Tommaso Malaspina, who inherited the estate from his mother Agnese, the last heir of the Aleramici Del Bosco marquises.
When the Malaspina line of Cremolino died out at the end of the 15th century, the castle was enfeoffed by the Marquis of Monferrato to the Sauli and Centurione families from Genoa, and from the mid-16th century to the Dorias. At the end of the 18th century it passed by marriage from them to the Serra marquises of Genoa.
Thanks partly to its triple band of walls, the castle was never conquered and as a result its medieval character, with the drawbridge, 14th-century tower and mighty 15th-century keep, has been preserved intact. The bastions of this medieval fortress look out over one of the most beautiful views of the Alto Monferrato and the Alps. The owners live permanently in the castle, which is surrounded by a 19th-century park of tall trees, boxwood topiary, roses, hydrangeas and fish ponds full of water-lilies.
References:Linderhof is the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the only one which he lived to see completed.
Ludwig II, who was crowned king in 1864, began his building activities in 1867-1868 by redesigning his rooms in the Munich Residenz and laying the foundation stone of Neuschwanstein Castle. In 1868 he was already making his first plans for Linderhof. However, neither the palace modelled on Versailles that was to be sited on the floor of the valley nor the large Byzantine palace envisaged by Ludwig II were ever built.
Instead, the new building developed around the forester's house belonging to his father Maximilian II, which was located in the open space in front of the present palace and was used by the king when crown prince on hunting expeditions with his father.