Admission ticket that includes a visit to the Montebello Archaeology 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, a wealthy family of merchants from Como, who retained it even under the rule of the Visconti. 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 there, the walls that enclosed the old hamlet extended until they met those that descended from the hill of S. Michele Ticino, making the castle an essential element of Bellinzona's defence system.
The Palazzetto presents the history of the castle through old documents, drawings, period photographs, and architectural plans, 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 where a selection of finds from the Ticino area are presented, with a particular focus on the Bellinzona region and the upper valleys. The visit to the keep proceeds vertically, following the thread of time in chronological order, from the oldest period (the Mesolithic) to the most recent (the Roman period).