Castiglione del Lago

Castiglione del Lago sits on a limestone promontory on the western shore of Lake Trasimeno, thirty kilometers from Perugia. The promontory was the fourth island of the lake in antiquity before the strip of water separating it from the mainland silted in. Federico II di Svevia commissioned the Rocca del Leone in 1247, the pentagonal fortress that still anchors the southern end of the centro storico.

In 1563 Ascanio della Corgna received the title of marquis and commissioned the Palazzo Ducale on the older Baglioni structure. Between 1574 and 1590 Niccolò Circignani, called il Pomarancio, frescoed eight rooms with the marquis's heroic deeds and mythological scenes. A covered passage links the palazzo directly to the Rocca: one museum complex, two buildings, four centuries apart. The town is the largest commune on the Trasimeno, the western base for the ferries to Isola Maggiore and Isola Polvese, and the only one of the lake's shore towns that holds Borghi più belli status.