The Visconti Castle stands north of the historic core of Vogogna, Piedmont. Its massive keep dominates the village from above. The building’s irregular ground plan reveals both its adaptation to the steep terrain conditions and the different phases of construction that followed over time. The polygonal tower (now partially ruined) that rises at the rear of the building dates back to the 11th century and, originally surrounded by a masonry enclosure, served as a defensive outpost of the fortress above located on Mount Orsetto at 350 meters above sea level.
In 1348 Giovanni Visconti, bishop of Novara and lord of Milan, had the castle enlarged as part of a larger plan to reinforce the borders of the Duchy of Milan against Swiss raids from the Valais. A rectangular building and an imposing semi-cylindrical tower on the east side were added to the primitive polygonal tower. In 1446 the fief passed to the Borromeo family, who further strengthened the castle with the construction on the south side of a quadrangular walled enclosure in which an arched gate equipped with a drawbridge was open.
About that time also probably dates the construction around the keep, as an adaptation to the use of firearms, of a scarp base and its crowning with a projecting part equipped with loopholes, machicolations and arquebuses covered by a roof with warp supporting a stone slab roof. The works brought the height of the semicircular tower to the present 19.40 m. divided into five floors.
Later, in 1514 under the Sforzas, the castle was incorporated into the new town wall, of which only a few traces remain today.
In the 16th century Spanish rule reduced the strategic importance of Vogogna Castle, which was used first as a prison and warehouse, a function it retained even under Savoy rule, then in the 1800s as the headquarters of the Royal Carabinieri.