Things to do
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Castello di Montebello
On a spur above the town, the middle castle of the three was standing by 1313, with a keep, deep moats and a double ring of walls that tie it to Castelgrande. Inside, the civic and archaeological museum shows Bronze Age finds and carved capitals. The three castles share one UNESCO listing.
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Castelgrande
The lowest and largest of the three castles, on a rock in the middle of the town, occupied since the neolithic and rebuilt by the Milanese in the fifteenth century. A lift runs up through the rock from the street and the wall that once crossed the whole valley floor runs off it.
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Castello di Sasso Corbaro
The highest of the three at 462 metres, built in six months in 1479 after the Swiss defeated Milan at Giornico, and standing apart from the other two. It is the quietest, and the view down the valley beats both of them.
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Collegiata dei Santi Pietro e Stefano
Below Castelgrande, this Renaissance parish church was built from 1515 to a design by Tommaso Rodari of Maroggia, who also worked on Como cathedral. The stone facade and wide staircase face the old town, and the interior is richly baroque. Look for the carved Trivulzio holy water font of 1465, and allow twenty minutes.
