Castello di Bastia

Castello di Bastia stands in the municipality of Bastia in Italy and dates to the medieval period, with its origins in the 13th century.

In the late 13th and early 14th centuries the site entered the orbit of regional feudal politics when Francesco d’Olivola included Bastia among obligations to the Malaspina marquises of Villafranca in 1294 and again in 1307. In 1416 forces from Genoa occupied the castle in retaliation for the murder of the Genoese provost of La Spezia, Oderico Biassa. Control returned to the Malaspina by 1423.

Between 1424 and 1428 the fortress held a Florentine garrison during the war between the commune of Florence and Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan. The Florentines used Bastia to block possible Milanese movements through the Apennines. Over the following decades the castle acquired features associated with the Renaissance, with modifications dated to the 15th century.

During the 1500s Bastia became part of the marquisate of Monti under Giovanni Spinetta. The spread of firearms and these political changes are recorded as driving structural refortification that helped give the site its reputation as an “unassailable castle.” When Giovanni Spinetta died in 1535 the castle was divided among his sons and became an independent fief under Fioramonte II; that line continued to hold the place until 1783.

The first half of the 17th century was marked by violent internal disorder under Nestore, brother of Marquis Carlo. Sources record crimes and popular uprisings, an intervention by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to restore order, continuing unrest, and the eventual killing of Nestore by rebels. In the later period the last marchioness, Annetta Malaspina, married Giovanni Malaspina of Mulazzo. She was celebrated in verse by Vincenzo Monti and Innocenzo Frugoni, and under the influence of the Jesuit Bettinelli she travelled to the French court in an attempt to secure influence with King Louis XV; that effort did not succeed and she returned with a small French pension. Renovations at an uncertain date altered the central keep so that its probable medieval features are now difficult to recognise. The castle remains in private ownership today.