A FAIRY TALE CALLED ROCCHETTA MATTEI

Rocchetta Mattei, the fairy-tale castle built by Count Cesare Mattei in 1850, rises in the Bolognese Apennines on the ruins of the ancient Rocca di Savignano, a building dating back to the 13th century.

The castle’s structure was modified a number of times by the count himself during his life, and later by his heirs, turning it into a true maze of towers, monumental staircases, reception rooms and private chambers. It recalls different styles: from neo-medieval to neo-renaissance, from Moorish to Liberty.

The castle was built to be the seat of electro homoeopathy, the new science or medicine created by the Count despite his lack of a medical degree. Many prominent guests and people from all over the world have come here in order to be healed by him.

Today, Rocchetta Mattei is open to the public thanks to an agreement between the Fondazione Carisbo, an association-based foundation of banking origins that pursues socially useful goals, the Municipality of Grizzana Morandi, which the Rocchetta is part of, the Metropolitan City of Bologna and the Unione Comuni Appennino Bolognese (that is the union of the municipalities of the Bologna Apennines).

The property is in fact owned by the Fondazione Carisbo, which decided to buy the Rocchetta in 2005 and launch a recovery operation to restore the building’s artistic and cultural value after years of it being closed and abandoned.

Given its extraordinary resemblance to the Alhambra of Granada, Spain, the Enjoy Travel website has included Rocchetta Mattei among the “15 places in Italy that make you feel as if you were abroad.” As described in the reasons behind this choice, “In the midst of the Bolognese Apennines rises a castle that is almost atypical for the Italian peninsula; the structure recalling the Andalusian Arab-moorish style, typical of Granada.”