Castel d'Ario Castle was a strategic element of a defensive system into the Mantuan territory, together with Castelbelforte and Villimpenta Castles, placed on the borderline with Veneto.
Castel D'Ario Castle represents one of the main medieval fenced-in castles with a pentagonal shape. Five towers are visible, included that one at the entrance, where people can still see the location where there was a portcullis and the ruins of the opposite ravelin. A significant restoration of the praetorian Palace at the end of the 20th century has brought to life frescos at the walls of the first floor, with the escutcheons of the Scaligeris, the lords from Verona, owners of the Castle for twenty years in the second half of the 14th century.
One of the towers inside the castle is called Torre della Fame; the tower was called like this because in the middle of the 19th century some skeletons were found out in this place; probably they belonged to members of Pico della Mirandola and Bonacolsi families, locked up and starved here. A headstone on the castle door reminds to this event.
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.