The castle
The castle is the place where St Louis was born on 9 March 1568. Here he lived until the age of 17, albeit with many interruptions due to his numerous trips to various courts. This was 'his home': here he received his first family education. Above all, it was here that he began his spiritual journey in the practice of daily prayer, alongside his mother. The castle is a place of memories not only of Aloisi: its origin is ancient. Perhaps an ancient Etruscan bulwark, undoubtedly a stronghold of the Romans when they settled in the Po-Mantua plain. It was a place of refuge, during invasions and various aggressions, for the surrounding rural population, who flocked here with their livestock and 'robe'. During the period of the Seignories, its proximity to the Veneto border made it a place of sighting for enemy or foreign forces, first under the rule of the Visconti, then under that of the Gonzaga. The great walls, interrupted by seven towers and an access tower, enclosed a large area in which the inhabitants of the villages below found safe shelter.
In the fortress of the Rocca, which was later transformed into a palace, the eldest son of Ferrante Gonzaga, Luigi the Saint, was born in 1568. The war events suffered by this strategically privileged place are too many to remember. Every age, every century he left his mark here, often of struggle and destruction. But even in the most desolate moment of its history, 1700, the Castle became a precious source for the community that from here drew the greatest amount of reusable material for the construction of the great Cathedral of the Community. Since 1891 a white marble stele indicates the place where the building where St. Louis was born stood. A long abandonment followed, then, in 1970, the Castiglionesi resumed thinking of this place as a useful reference for the community. Groups of young people and adults, with the priests of the parish, rolled up their sleeves and slowly the current vital lung for the Castiglionese Christian community came to life. But the castle is also a parish center, the house where the community meets and lives its family moments, the house where the community welcomes and would like everyone to feel “at home”. This is the air you breathe today in the many moments that are lived in the Castle, with the children of catechism classes, with adolescents, in the various weeks of Grest or in other initiatives.
Since 1891 a white marble stele indicates the place where the building where St. Louis was born stood. A long abandonment followed, then, in 1970, the Castiglionesi resumed thinking of this place as a useful reference for the community. Groups of young people and adults, with the priests of the parish, rolled up their sleeves and slowly the current vital lung for the Castiglionese Christian community came to life. But the castle is also a parish center, the house where the community meets and lives its family moments, the house where the community welcomes and would like everyone to feel “at home”. This is the air you breathe today in the many moments that are lived in the Castle, with the children of catechism classes, with adolescents, in the various weeks of Grest or in other initiatives.