Bramafam Tower stands at the corner of Via Bramafam and Viale G. Carducci, along the southern side of the Roman walls. Its official name is Bramafam Castle, but it is commonly referred to as the Tower.
It has a circular rampart, with the Roman walls still visible at its base, and part of the tower which flanked Porta Principalis Dextera, on which it was constructed in around the 12-13th centuries. It belonged to the family of the Viscounts of Aosta, who controlled the entire south-western side of the walls. After receiving the fiefdom of the Challant valley in 1295, they also took its name and became the most important noble family in Val d’Aosta. The fortified house that was their seat, was later moved to the Count of Savoy. Over the subsequent centuries it underwent various other property changes, and lost its representative and administrative importance.It was apparently abandoned in the 16th century.
To explain the origin of the tower’s name, which is still unknown, a legend says that, out of jealousy, the wife of one of the Challants was imprisoned there and left to die of hunger.
References:Sigmaringen Castle was first mentioned in the year 1077 in the chronicles of Petershausen monastery. The oldest parts of the castle are concealed beneath the alterations made during the 17th and the 19th centuries. The secret of the earliest settlement built on this defendable rock will never be fully revealed: large-scale excavation work would be necessary, which the extensive land development renders impossible. Judging from the many Roman remains unearthed in the area around Sigmaringen, the 12th century keep known as the 'Roman Tower' could be traced back to a Roman predecessor.
The castle remains that have been preserved (gate, great hall and keep) date back to the Staufer period around 1200. The castle remains were integrated into subsequent buildings. The foundations of the castle buildings are to a large extent identical to the surrounding castle wall.
These remains give us a good idea of how the castle might have looked during the 12th century.