Gavi was built by incorporating a pre-existing castle built, according to legend, at the time of the Saracen occupations and anointed by Princess Gavia who had established her residence in that location. The first document that testifies to the existence of the castle is a notarial act dating back to the year 973.
The castle remained the property of the Genoese, albeit with ups and downs, at least until 1418 when it passed first to the Milanese Lordship of the Visconti, then to the Fregoso family and finally to the Alexandrian Guasco, lords of Francavilla.
Over the centuries the transformation from castle to fort has been slow but constant: the first radical interventions on the original structure were made in 1540 by the military engineer in the service of the Republic Giovanni Maria Olgiati.Disarmed in 1859, the fort was transformed into a civil penitentiary. During the First World War it was used as a prison camp for the Austro-Hungarians, while during the Second World War it was used as a prison camp for Anglo-American officers. The fortress can be visited in the various main rooms.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.