Entrance ticket that includes a visit to the Archeologia Montebello exhibition route, the tower and the inner and outer courtyards.
The first inner core of the castle dates back to the 13th/14th century and is attributed to the Rusca family, a wealthy family of merchants from Como, who retained it even under Visconti rule. In 1335, the castle came under the control of the Visconti of Milan, who expanded it for strategic and military purposes. The outer courtyards with towers and ravelin were reinforced in the second half of the 15th century by the Sforza engineers.
From it extended the walls that enclosed the old village until they met those that descended from the hill of S. Michele Ticino, making the castle an essential element of Bellinzona's defense system.
In the Palazzetto – through old documents, drawings, period photographs and architectural plans – the history of the castle is presented, from its construction at the end of the 13th century, through the extensive restoration and reconstruction work of the period 1902–1910, to the last major architectural intervention dating back to the 1970s.
The castle tower houses an archaeological exhibition featuring a selection of finds from the Ticino region, with a particular focus on the Bellinzona area and the upper valleys. The visit to the keep unfolds vertically, following the thread of time in chronological order, from the earliest period (the Mesolithic) to the most recent (the Roman period).