Rocchetta Mattei is the most visionary castle in Italy. A miniature Italian Alhambra planted in the middle of the Bologna Apennine forests, built between 1850 and 1888 by a Bolognese nobleman obsessed with alchemy, alternative medicine and Islamic art: Count Cesare Mattei (1809-1896), inventor of Elettromeopatia, founder of a pharmaceutical company that by the early 20th century counted 266 depots worldwide, cited by Dostoevskij in The Brothers Karamazov, physician of princes and tsars, considered by contemporaries "the last alchemist".
If you search "rocchetta mattei" on Google (60,500 monthly searches in Italy, one of the highest volumes for a single Italian monument), you mostly find generic tourist pages and brochures. What is rarely told is the real story: the count's biography, the invention of Elettromeopatia with its colored globules (red, white, green, yellow, blue), the international clientele, the long 20th-century abandonment, the 1944 Allied bombing, the Nazi requisition, the post-war looting, and finally the decade-long restoration by the Fondazione Carisbo (2005-2015).
This guide reconstructs, with sources, 170 years of history of the Rocchetta Mattei: from the first stone on November 5, 1850 to the reopening on August 9, 2015 and the new restoration of the Arab-Moorish wing in 2024-2027. We tell you where it is, how to get there, how much the ticket costs in 2026, what to see in the dozen visitable rooms, and how to book (because free entry doesn't exist: only access by mandatory reservation). The exact GPS coordinates of the castle are available on the Urbex Maps interactive map.
The terms rocchetta mattei, castello rocchetta mattei, castello di rocchetta mattei, castello mattei and la rocchetta mattei all refer to the same place: the eclectic castle of Riola di Vergato, in Emilia-Romagna, province of Bologna, municipality of Grizzana Morandi. Cumulative Italian search volume exceeds 80,000 monthly searches, sign of constant popular interest.
Where the Rocchetta Mattei is located: Riola di Vergato, Bologna Apennines
The Rocchetta Mattei is located at coordinates 44.22352 N, 11.06005 E, in the locality of Savignano, on the left bank of the Reno river, at 407 meters above sea level, in the municipality of Grizzana Morandi (province of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna). Administratively the reference hamlet is Riola di Vergato, about one kilometer from the castle and served by a railway station on the Porrettana line (Bologna-Pistoia).
The castle rises on a rocky spur dominating the Reno valley, in a strategic position already occupied in the Middle Ages by the Rocca di Savignano, fortress of the counts of Panico (12th-13th century) of which only the foundations remain today, incorporated into the basements of the Rocchetta. Cesare Mattei bought the land and ruins in 1850 precisely for the historical significance of the site: he wanted, as he wrote in his letters, to "build over the ruins of a medieval fortress a fortress of another era".
Geographically we are in the heart of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, at:
- ●52 kilometers southwest of Bologna (1 hour by car via SS64 Porrettana, 35 minutes via A1 to Sasso Marconi)
- ●78 kilometers northeast of Pistoia (Tuscany)
- ●110 kilometers southeast of Modena
- ●45 kilometers north of Lake Suviana, Suviana-Brasimone regional park
- ●22 kilometers south of Marzabotto, famous for the Etruscan archaeological area of Kainua and for the 1944 massacre
The landscape is that of the central Apennines: hills covered with centuries-old chestnut groves, oak woods, beech forests at altitude, small medieval villages (Vergato, Castel d'Aiano, Tolè), winding roads following the watercourses of the Reno, Setta and Brasimone. It is the landscape painted by Giorgio Morandi: the great Bolognese painter (1890-1964) spent decades in nearby Grizzana, which after his death added his name to the municipal denomination (Grizzana Morandi since 1985).
Cesare Mattei: the herbalist count (1809-1896)
To understand the Rocchetta Mattei you must first understand who its builder was. Cesare Mattei was born in Bologna on January 11, 1809, second son of a patrician family of the Bolognese commercial bourgeoisie. His father, Luigi Mattei, was a lawyer and estate administrator; his mother, Teresa Bertoloni, daughter of a notary. The family was rich, cultured, observant Catholic and politically close to the moderate party of the Papal State.
Young Cesare grew up in the Bolognese intellectual environment of the early 19th century. He studied law at the University of Bologna (then the Pontifical Archiginnasio) but did not graduate. He frequented the salon of the poet and patriot Paolo Costa (1771-1836), who became his spiritual master and introduced him to Enlightenment ideas, moderate liberalism, classical culture and the first rudiments of Masonic esotericism. Among his youthful friends was also Marco Minghetti (1818-1886), future Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy (1863-1864 and 1873-1876).
In 1837, at twenty-eight, Mattei was among the founders of the [Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassa_di_Risparmio_in_Bologna): a banking institution which, over a century and a half later, through the Fondazione Carisbo, would be precisely the one to finance the restoration of the Rocchetta (2005-2015). One of those historical coincidences that have the flavor of poetic justice.
In the 1840s Mattei was active in the politics of the Papal State. He was a moderate reformist, close to the positions of Pius IX in the first phase of the pontificate (1846-1848). In 1847 the pope granted him, together with his brother Giuseppe, the hereditary title of count, in recognition of the donation to the Papal State of a family land property near Comacchio. From this moment Cesare Mattei could bear the noble title with which he would pass into history: Count Cesare Mattei.
The political experience was brief and bitter. Cesare participated in the 1848 uprisings on the side of moderate reformers, but witnessed with disillusion the brutal Austrian and papal repression of the revolutionary biennium. In 1850, after the return of Pius IX to Rome and the abandonment of any constitutional reform project, Mattei abandoned politics and withdrew to private life. He was 41 years old, single, rich, and sought a new project in which to invest money, intelligence and intellectual curiosity.
He found two. The first was the construction of an eccentric castle on the Apennines. The second was the invention of a new medicine. The two projects would proceed in parallel for the rest of his life, intertwining inextricably: the Rocchetta Mattei would in fact become the global productive and administrative headquarters of Elettromeopatia, a kind of pharmaceutical company transformed into a fairy-tale castle.
The event that pushed Mattei toward medicine was personal and dramatic: in 1840 his mother died of tumor, after a long agony during which official medicine had proven powerless. The loss left in Cesare a profound distrust of academic medicine.
In the 1840s he began studying homeopathy by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), at the time widespread in European aristocracy. He trained self-taught, never obtaining a degree in medicine. From his readings of Hahnemann, Renaissance alchemy treatises, Apennine popular phytotherapy and studies of vegetable electricity (Galvani, Volta, Matteucci) was born an original medical system that he baptized Elettromiopatia (later known as Elettromeopatia).
Cesare Mattei died at the Rocchetta on April 3, 1896, at 87 years. Having no biological children, he left his entire patrimony: the castle, pharmaceutical laboratories, world depots, rents: to his adopted son Mario Venturoli, who had to swear to take the surname Venturoli Mattei and to continue the pharmaceutical activity.
Elettromeopatia: medicine or quackery?
Elettromeopatia is the count's most controversial legacy. For its supporters it is an effective natural therapeutic system based on phytotherapy. For official medicine, it is instead a pseudoscience: the 19th-century equivalent of what today we would call "snake oil".
The theoretical system
According to Mattei, every illness is the result of an electrical imbalance between two polarities of the organism: the positive polarity (associated with arterial blood) and the negative polarity (associated with lymph). Health is balance between the two charges; illness is their imbalance.
To cure diseases, Mattei proposed two categories of remedies:
1. Medicated globules, prepared from a vegetable base (extracts of herbs, roots, barks, flowers from the Bologna Apennines and other regions) worked according to alchemical protocols of his invention. Taken orally, dissolved in water or under the tongue. 2. Electric fluids, colored liquid solutions to be applied externally on the skin or taken orally in minimal doses. Divided into five chromatic polarizations: Red Electricity Fluid (++), Blue (+), White (0), Yellow (-), Green (--).
Therapy consisted in combining globules and fluids according to prescriptive schemes codified by Mattei in two manuals at his own expense: the Trattato dell'elettromeopatia (1880) and the Annuario elettromeopatico (1885-1895), sent free to clients of world depots together with product boxes.
Commercial success
From a commercial point of view, Elettromeopatia was one of the greatest pharmaceutical successes of 19th-century Europe. At Mattei's death in 1896 there were already 107 official world depots. Under the management of adopted son Mario Venturoli Mattei, depots continued to grow: in 1914 they were 266 worldwide, distributed on five continents, from Ireland to New Zealand, from Brazil to Canada, from Egypt to Australia. A true pharmaceutical multinational ante litteram, managed from a castle in the Bologna Apennines.
Scientific criticism
Academic medicine has always considered Elettromeopatia a form of pseudoscientific quackery. The alleged electrical properties of the preparations were never demonstrable instrumentally: already in 1879 chemical analyses showed that globules were essentially icing sugar flavored with vegetable extracts and fluids aqueous solutions with dyes. The theorized mechanism of action does not correspond to any known physiological principle. The therapeutic effects reported by patients are largely explainable by placebo effect, spontaneous regression and accidental phytotherapy.
The Royal College of Physicians of London officially condemned Elettromeopatia in 1879. Analogous condemnations came from the Académie de Médecine of Paris (1881) and from the Reale Accademia di Medicina di Torino (1885).
In 1959 the laboratories were transferred from Riola to Bologna. In 1968 they closed definitively. Today Elettromeopatia is no longer practiced in Italy; small residual niches survive in India and Pakistan.
Construction of the castle (1850-1888)
The Rocchetta Mattei was not born in one go. Cesare Mattei laid the first stone on November 5, 1850, but construction continued, in successive phases, for nearly forty years: the main phase (perimeter, towers, hall) was completed in 1875, while decorative additions, interior expansions, the chapel and the Sala dei Novanta continued until about 1888, and some elements of the Arab-Moorish part were added by adopted son Mario Venturoli after the count's death.
The original project was entrusted to Cesare Mattei himself: the count had no architectural training, but had a very rich library of architecture treatises (Vitruvius, Palladio, Viollet-le-Duc, Owen Jones) and a personal passion for drawing. Much of the original plans, preserved today in the Historical Archive of the Fondazione Carisbo, are by the count's hand, drawn in pencil and watercolor on tracing paper.
Technical execution was entrusted to local craftsmen: masons from Riola, stonecutters from Marzabotto, carpenters from Vergato, decorators from Bologna. For the most delicate phases (Islamic stained-glass windows, Alhambrine decorations of the main courtyard, mosaic floors) Mattei called specialists from Granada, Cordoba and Venice.
Materials came largely from the surroundings: local sandstone, chestnut wood, white Carrara marble for the columns of the Arab courtyard. Polychrome majolicas of stained-glass windows and floors were imported from workshops in Granada and Seville on models the count had photographed at the Alhambra during his trips to Andalusia.
The total cost, summing all phases 1850-1888, is estimated at around three million lire of the time (over 15 million current euros): one of the most expensive private building operations in post-unification Italy.
Construction phases
1850-1859: excavation of foundations, construction of the outer perimeter, basements (on those of the pre-existing medieval fortress) and main tower. In 1859 the structure was habitable and Cesare Mattei moved there permanently, abandoning the family palace in Bologna.
1859-1875: addition of side towers, San Michele chapel, Sala della Pace (initially representation hall) and first inner courtyards.
1875-1888: realization of the main Arab-Moorish courtyard, with small white marble columns, polychrome Islamic stained glass and geometric decorations inspired by the Alhambra of Granada and the mosque-cathedral of Cordoba. Construction of the Sala dei Novanta (initially conceived as mausoleum dedicated to Queen Victoria, then converted into a hall). Addition of decorative turrets, battlements and panoramic balconies.
1888-1896: final touches, expansion of the count's personal library (over 8,000 volumes). Publication of Elettromeopatia manuals takes place from the castle itself, equipped with a small internal printing press.
Eclectic architecture: Moorish, Gothic, alchemical
The Rocchetta Mattei is one of the most representative monuments of Italian 19th-century eclecticism. The style is a sum of citations: Moorish, neo-Gothic, neo-Romanesque, Alhambrine, even Liberty hints (in the adopted son's early 20th-century additions): assembled together in a programmatically syncretist way, as if Mattei had wanted to build a three-dimensional catalog of all the eras and cultures that fascinated him.
Eclecticism is one of the most typical movements of European architecture of the second half of the 19th century. It finds its best-known expressions in the reconstructions of Viollet-le-Duc (Pierrefonds, Carcassonne), in the Bavarian castles of Ludwig II (Neuschwanstein), in English Gothic Revival. In Italy the most famous example is the [Castello di Sammezzano in Tuscany](/blog/castello-sammezzano-toscana-perla-moresca), built by Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d'Aragona between 1853 and 1889: practically in parallel with the Rocchetta Mattei, with which it shares passion for Orientalist style and Islamic stained glass.
What distinguishes the Rocchetta from "conventional" eclecticism? Three elements:
1. Complete authorship. The Rocchetta is not the work of a professional architect, but of the commissioner himself, who designs every detail in function of a personal, mystical and symbolic vision. Mattei does not want to ostentate wealth: he wants to codify a system in which the castle itself is medical device, philosophical school and initiatory temple together. 2. Integration with pharmaceutical activity. The Rocchetta is also an international pharmaceutical company, with production laboratories in the basements, offices for the 266 world depots, internal printing press for manuals, rooms for visiting patients. Productive function probably unique in European eclecticism. 3. Programmatic Orientalist syncretism. While Neuschwanstein is Gothic, Sammezzano Moorish, Pierrefonds Romanesque, the Rocchetta does not choose: it alternates styles from one room to another. Alhambrine main courtyard, neo-Gothic Sala dei Novanta with Liberty elements, neo-Romanesque chapel, Liberty-oriental fantasy Sala della Pace.
References to the Alhambra of Granada
The most explicit reference is to the Alhambra of Granada (13th-14th century). Mattei visited Granada between 1850 and 1860, took hundreds of drawings and photographs (the first photographs of the Alhambra had been published in 1842 by Englishman Owen Jones, a book Mattei owned in his library), and returned to the Rocchetta with the idea of recreating a scale-down Alhambra on the Bologna Apennines.
The main courtyard is the most direct translation of this vision: small white marble columns with capitals inspired by the Court of the Lions, horseshoe arches, geometric decorations in polychrome stucco, central fountain, polychrome Islamic stained glass that filters light in green, red and blue tones. Floor majolicas reproduce Nasrid geometric motifs. The other great "Alhambrine" hall is the Sala della Pace.
Gothic and medieval references
The neo-Gothic-medievalizing side of the Rocchetta is equally present. The crenellated towers are inspired by 14th-century Emilian castles (Vignola, Bentivoglio, Levizzano). The mullioned windows are of Gothic matrix. The chapel of San Michele Arcangelo is in neo-Romanesque style. This medievalizing side is also an identity statement: Mattei wanted to link his Rocchetta to the memory of the Rocca di Savignano, the fortress of the counts of Panico that existed on the same spur in the 12th-13th century. Many stones of the ancient fortress were reused in the foundations of the new one.
The main rooms: Pace, Novanta, Telefono, Russia
The Rocchetta Mattei contains today, after the 2005-2015 Carisbo restoration, about a dozen visitable rooms, distributed over three floors. The most famous and photographed are four: the Sala della Pace, the Sala dei Novanta, the Sala del Telefono and the Sala della Russia. Each has its own story, function and distinctive style.
Sala della Pace
The Sala della Pace is probably the most evocative and photographed hall of the castle. Built after 1918 by adopted son Mario Venturoli Mattei to celebrate the peace regained after World War I, it is a Liberty fantasy in oriental key: walls tapestried in blue and gold silk, vaulted ceiling decorated with astral motifs, a large central alabaster chandelier, two small side turrets with blue polychrome stained glass that filter light dreamily.
The planimetric form is that of a small octagonal mosque, with side niches and a decorative fountain (today dry) in the center. The style is an early 20th-century reinterpretation of the count's 19th-century Orientalism: less philological, more decorative, with explicit citations of Ottoman art and Istanbul mosques (Mario Venturoli had traveled to Turkey in the 1910s and 1920s).
Curiosity: in the stained glass of the Sala della Pace recurs several times the six-pointed Star of David, next to the Christian cross, the Islamic crescent and the alchemical symbol of the ouroboros. It is a declaration of religious syncretism extraordinarily advanced for 1920s Italy.
Sala dei Novanta
The Sala dei Novanta is the most symbolically rich room of the castle. Its story is tortuous: designed by Cesare Mattei as mausoleum dedicated to Queen Victoria of England (whom Mattei admired and with whom, according to some anecdotal sources, he maintained direct correspondence on medical topics), it was then converted into a ballroom by adopted son Mario Venturoli in the early 20th century.
The name "Sala dei Novanta" derives from the legend according to which the count wanted to celebrate his own ninetieth birthday with eighty-nine other nonagenarians, in a sort of collective initiatory rite of longevity. Cesare Mattei died in 1896 at 87, without managing to realize the project. Mario Venturoli nevertheless baptized the hall in memory of his adoptive father.
The centerpiece is a large oval stained-glass window that bears in the center the effigy of Count Cesare Mattei with the birth date (1809) engraved in lead in the colored glass. Below the stained glass, the heraldic insignia of the Mattei family and the alchemical symbols of the seven planets. The floor is in polychrome mosaic with geometric motifs of Islamic matrix. The coffered ceiling is painted in gold on blue background, with starred motifs.
Sala del Telefono
The Sala del Telefono is one of the most curious additions of the castle, built by Mario Venturoli in the 1920s to house one of the first private telephones of the Bologna Apennines (the line reached Riola in 1923). Small octagonal room, decorated in Moorish-Liberty style with polychrome majolicas and painted dome ceiling. The original telephone, a 1923 wall model from the Società Telefonica Tirrena, is still preserved in situ.
Sala della Russia
The Sala della Russia takes its name from the alleged visit of Tsar Alexander II to the Rocchetta in 1877 (probably apocryphal legend), or from the large orders of electromeopathic remedies sent to the imperial court of Saint Petersburg. It is certain that the Russian clientele represented a significant share of revenue in the 1870-1917 period.
The hall is decorated with Byzantine-Russian icons, motifs inspired by Orthodox churches, a collection of samovars received as gifts from Russian clients, Caucasian carpets. After the October Revolution 1917 the Russian clientele vanished suddenly (the Bolsheviks confiscated the Moscow and Saint Petersburg depots as "bourgeois superstition"), and the Hall became a melancholy memorial of a commercially concluded era.
International clientele: royals, nobles, Dostoevskij
The international fame of the Rocchetta Mattei in the 19th century is largely due to its very high-level aristocratic and intellectual clientele. The world depots (107 at the count's death in 1896, 266 in 1914) served a vast audience, but some specific patient names contributed to building the prestige of Mattei's therapy.
European aristocratic clientele
Among the documented or reported clients of the Rocchetta we find:
- ●Lord Beaconsfield (Benjamin Disraeli), British prime minister (1874-1880), who allegedly used Mattei remedies against asthma
- ●Queen Victoria of England (1819-1901), with whom Mattei allegedly maintained direct correspondence
- ●Tsar Alexander II of Russia (1818-1881)
- ●King Umberto I of Italy and Queen Margherita of Savoy
- ●Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire (1842-1918)
- ●The Maharaja of Kapurthala (Indian Punjab)
- ●Empress Sissi (Elisabeth of Austria, 1837-1898), for her "nervous exhaustion"
The exact identity of many patients is impossible to verify: the client archives of the Rocchetta were destroyed between 1944 and 1959, and most names come from propaganda publications of the company. Remains the fact that Elettromeopatia reached the political and cultural elites of late 19th-century Europe.
Dostoevskij and Elettromeopatia in The Brothers Karamazov
The most famous literary reference to the Rocchetta Mattei is in *[The Brothers Karamazov](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_fratelli_Karamazov) by Fyodor Dostoevskij, published in 1880. In the famous Devil chapter* (Book XI, Chapter IX, "Ivan Fyodorovich's Nightmare"), the devil who appears to Ivan Karamazov declares:
> "But now I've caught rheumatism, and what will become of me? […] I wrote to Count Mattei in Milan. He sent me a book and some drops, may God bless him."
The reference is unequivocal: Dostoevskij writes "Count Mattei" without explanations, presupposing that the Russian reader of 1880 knew who he was. It is in itself a proof of the international fame of Elettromeopatia. The detail "in Milan" is an inaccuracy (the headquarters was in Riola di Vergato), probably due to vague memory of Mattei's Russian depot in Saint Petersburg.
The Brothers Karamazov citation has become a true mark of literary nobility for the Rocchetta. Even today in the official guided tour the guide dwells on the Dostoevskian passage, and in the bookshop translations of the chapter with the Mattei reference highlighted are available.
The abandonment after Cesare (20th century)
At the death of Cesare Mattei on April 3, 1896, the Rocchetta passed in inheritance to adopted son Mario Venturoli, obliged by testament to assume the surname Venturoli Mattei and to continue the pharmaceutical activity. Mario, who is 35 at the time of inheritance, manages both castle and company successfully for thirty years, until 1926: he expands the network of world depots (reaching 266 in 1914), realizes some of the best-known halls (Sala della Pace, Sala del Telefono), introduces technological improvements (electricity, telephone, central heating).
Mario Venturoli died in 1926, leaving the Rocchetta to wife and children. From this moment begins the slow decline of the castle, which crosses nearly fifty years of progressively less active management.
The 1920s-1930s: first signs of crisis
The 1920s and 1930s are still a period of relative prosperity for the Rocchetta. The Venturoli family maintains summer residence at the castle, pharmaceutical activity still generates revenue (though declining). The rise of scientific medicine (insulin, penicillin, sulfonamides) however progressively erodes the customer base of Elettromeopatia, and fascist autarky strangles exports to world depots.
World War II: German requisition and bombings
The true historical trauma of the Rocchetta arrives with World War II. In September 1943, after the Italian armistice, the castle is requisitioned by the German army as advanced command of the Gothic Line. The Venturoli family is forced to hastily transfer to Bologna, abandoning furnishings, library, art works and commercial archives.
During the eighteen months of German occupation, the Rocchetta suffers very serious damage: furnishings are requisitioned or burned for firewood, the library plundered, some Islamic stained glass dismantled. In January 1944, an Allied bombing of the Porrettana railway line hits the castle and collapses part of the Sala della Pace roof. After liberation (April 1945), Allied troops and civilians loot the last remaining furnishings.
The post-war: slow agony
The Venturoli family has neither the funds nor the energy to restore the castle. The pharmaceutical activity, in agony, is transferred to Bologna in 1959 and closes definitively in 1968. The Rocchetta is sold in 1959 to the family of a local merchant, Primo Stefanelli, who manages it for about twenty years as an improvised tourist attraction. Resources for maintenance are insufficient: roofs degrade, stained glass breaks.
In the 1980s the Rocchetta enters almost total abandonment. For about twenty years (1985-2005) it is one of the most famous Lost Places of the Bologna Apennines, frequented by urbex and esotericism enthusiasts who sought traces of Mattean alchemy, cited in journalistic reportages as symbol of an Italian heritage in decay.
The Carisbo restoration (2005-2015)
The turning point arrives in 2005, when the [Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna (Carisbo)](https://fondazionecarisbo.it/) buys the Rocchetta from the Stefanelli heirs, "in serious conditions of degradation", as the official communiqué of the time recites. It is a notable historical coincidence: Carisbo is the modern evolution of that Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna of which Cesare Mattei had been among the founders in 1837. One hundred sixty-eight years later, the banking institution founded by the count saves the count's castle.
The Carisbo restoration lasts ten years (2005-2015) and costs about 5 million euros, financed entirely by the Foundation (in particular through Genus Bononiae, the cultural project for valorization of Bolognese heritage). Work is entrusted to the GTRF architecture studio of Bologna, in collaboration with the Superintendence for Architectural and Landscape Heritage of Bologna and with the scientific support of the University of Bologna.
Restoration phases
The restoration was articulated in three phases: historical investigation and laser scanner surveys (2005-2008, with the discovery of Cesare Mattei's original drawings in the Venturoli archives); structural consolidation, roof redoing and facade restoration (2008-2012); restoration of main hall interiors (2012-2015), with recovery of surviving decorations and replacement of destroyed Islamic stained glass with copies on period photographic models.
The reopening of August 9, 2015
On August 9, 2015, after ten years of work, the Rocchetta Mattei reopens to the public. Operational management is entrusted to a tripartite convention between the Municipality of Grizzana Morandi, the Metropolitan City of Bologna and the Union of Municipalities of the Bologna Apennines. The reception exceeds all expectations: in the first six months, over 25,000 visitors with weeks-long waiting lists on weekends.
The new restoration of the Arab-Moorish wing (2024-2027)
The 2005-2015 Carisbo restoration brought back to life about two thirds of the castle. The western Arab-Moorish wing (containing the main Alhambrine courtyard) remained unrestored. In July 2024 the Fondazione Carisbo launched a new restoration campaign dedicated precisely to this wing, with an investment of about 3 million euros. The work, ongoing in 2026, includes consolidation of the Moorish loggia, restoration of the marble columns, philological reconstruction of polychrome Islamic stained glass and restoration of mosaic floors. End planned for 2027, with the full reopening.
Mysteries and esotericism: alchemy and symbols
The Rocchetta Mattei is not just a castle: it is an esoteric manifesto in stone. The very fact that many of the symbols inserted by the count have not yet been decoded with certainty fuels a very lively para-esoteric literature, which for decades has proposed alchemical, Masonic, Rosicrucian, Templar interpretations of the castle.
Cesare Mattei's esoteric library
The first clue of a deep interest of the count in esotericism is his personal library, partially surviving and today preserved at the Historical Archive of the Fondazione Carisbo. The library counted over 8,000 volumes, of which about 2,000 surviving: a substantial section dedicated to Renaissance alchemical treatises (Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Robert Fludd, Athanasius Kircher), Rosicrucian literature, Masonic symbolism manuals (Eliphas Lévi, Albert Pike). Cesare Mattei was in epistolary contact with various protagonists of European esotericism, including Eliphas Lévi himself (1810-1875).
The castle's symbols
Among the most discussed symbols in the Rocchetta decorations: the five alchemical elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Ether) arranged in the main courtyard according to Paracelsian cosmogony; the six-pointed star (Sigillum Salomonis) in the stained glass of the Sala della Pace; the inverted pentagram under a first-floor lintel; the planetary symbols in the stained glass of the Sala dei Novanta; the eye in the triangle (Providence/Masonry) on a courtyard plaque; the ouroboros recurring in the floors.
Visiting the Rocchetta Mattei today: reservation, tickets, duration
In 2026 the Rocchetta Mattei is open to the public exclusively by reservation. There is no possibility of free access: all tickets must be purchased online or by phone in advance. The system, implemented after the 2015 reopening and perfected in 2020, guarantees contained flows (about 40 people per guided tour) and conservation of the asset.
Modalities, hours and prices
The only way to visit the Rocchetta is the guided group tour (60-75 minutes, every 45 minutes or so), conducted by guides trained by the Fondazione Carisbo. Individual free visits are not allowed. The route covers about a dozen halls: outer courtyard, Arab-Moorish courtyard (partial, awaiting 2024-2027 restoration), Sala della Pace, Sala dei Novanta, Sala del Telefono, Sala della Russia, San Michele Chapel.
Hours: winter season (November-March) Saturday and Sunday 10:00-15:00; summer season (April-October) Saturday and Sunday 9:30-13:00 and 15:00-17:30. Closed December 24 to January 6. Extraordinary openings on holidays and during thematic events.
Prices 2026: full ticket 10 €, reduced 5 € (13-17 years, over 65, residents of Union Bologna Apennines), free under 12 and for FAI members. Train+Castle discount of 3 € by presenting the regional train ticket at the cash desk.
How to book
Reservation online at www.rocchetta-mattei.it (Booking section), with card or PayPal payment. Or by phone at +39 366 1433 941 (Mon-Fri 8:00-13:30) or +39 351 7373 891 (weekends). On high season weekends (spring-autumn) dates may sell out 3-4 weeks in advance.
What to bring: comfortable non-slip shoes (numerous stairs and stone floors), sweater even in summer (interior is cool, 12-15°C), smartphone for photos without flash. The Rocchetta is not fully accessible to motor disabled (a reduced route via ramp to outer courtyard and Sala della Pace is available).
How to get to the Rocchetta Mattei
The Rocchetta Mattei is 52 kilometers from Bologna, on the Bologna Apennines, reachable by car, train or combination of the two means. Here the detail:
From Bologna by car
Via A1 motorway (recommended): Bologna → A1 direction Florence → Sasso Marconi exit (10 km) → SS64 Porrettana direction Pistoia for about 35 km along the Reno valley → Riola di Vergato exit → 1 km on secondary road. Total time: 1 hour. Toll Bologna-Sasso Marconi: 1.50 €. Free parking at the foot of the castle (40-50 spaces).
Via SS64 Porrettana (free, scenic): Bologna ring road exit 1 → SS64 direction Pistoia for about 52 km → Riola di Vergato exit. Time: 1 h 15 min.
From Bologna by train
The Riola station is on the Porrettana Bologna-Pistoia line, served by Trenitalia regional trains with hourly frequency. Bologna Centrale → Riola: 50 minutes, 4.75 € one way (2026). From the station the Rocchetta is about 1 km on foot (15-20 minutes, brief climb). Presenting the train ticket at the cash desk: 3 € discount on the visit.
Summary table
| From | Means | Duration | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bologna | Car via A1 | 1 h | 1.50 € + fuel | Faster |
| Bologna | Car via SS64 | 1 h 15 min | Only fuel | Scenic |
| Bologna | Porrettana regional train | 50 min + 15 min walking | 4.75 € | 3€ discount at cash desk |
| Florence | Car via A1 | 1 h 45 min | 12 € toll + fuel | From north Tuscany |
| Modena | Car via A1+SS64 | 1 h 30 min | 5 € toll | Combined itinerary |
| Pistoia | Car via SS64 | 1 h 15 min | Only fuel | From central Tuscany |
| Milan | Car via A1 | 3 h 15 min | 18 € toll | Long distance |
Suggestion: the train+walk solution is ideal for those departing from Bologna or Pistoia. The journey on the historic Porrettana line (1864-1934, masterpiece of Italian railway engineering with helical tunnels and scenic viaducts) is a tourist experience in itself.
What to see in the surroundings: Bologna, Marzabotto, Porrettana
A visit to the Rocchetta Mattei can easily turn into an itinerary of one or two days on the Bologna Apennines, combining it with the area's other historical, archaeological and naturalistic attractions. Here the best options within a radius of 30 kilometers.
Marzabotto: the Etruscan archaeological area and the massacre shrine
22 kilometers north of the Rocchetta, on the SS64 Porrettana, is Marzabotto, famous for two reasons: the [Archaeological Area of Kainua-Marzabotto](https://www.bolognawelcome.com/en/places/archaeological-areas/area-archeologica-museo-marzabotto), one of the most important Etruscan cities of northern Italy (5th-4th century BC); and the Marzabotto Shrine, commemorative monument of the Nazi-fascist massacre of September 29-October 5, 1944, during which German SS and fascists killed 770 civilians: the largest Nazi-fascist massacre in Western Europe.
Bologna, Porrettana, Grizzana Morandi
52 kilometers northeast is Bologna: Piazza Maggiore, the two towers, 38 km of UNESCO porticoes, the Historical Archive of the Fondazione Carisbo where original materials of Cesare Mattei are preserved.
The SS64 Porrettana is a scenic itinerary in itself: south you reach Porretta Terme (historic thermal station), Granaglione (medieval village), and the Suviana and Brasimone Lakes (regional park with hiking trails).
A few kilometers from the Rocchetta is Grizzana Morandi, village of the painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964): visit the Centro Studi Morandi and the Campiaro house-museum.
For those who want to extend the journey, we recommend our in-depth pieces dedicated to [Castello di Sammezzano](/blog/castello-sammezzano-toscana-perla-moresca) in Tuscany (analogous 19th-century Orientalism, still abandoned), to [Cretto di Burri of Gibellina](/blog/cretto-di-burri-gibellina-land-art-sicilia) in Sicily, to the [San Galgano Abbey](/blog/abbazia-san-galgano-spada-roccia-toscana) in Tuscany, and to the pillar [on abandoned places of Italy](/blog/luoghi-abbandonati-italia). For the region see also the page Urbex in Emilia-Romagna.
FAQ: frequent questions about the Rocchetta Mattei
Where is the Rocchetta Mattei located?
The Rocchetta Mattei is in locality Savignano, in the municipality of Grizzana Morandi (province of Bologna), about 1 km from the hamlet of Riola di Vergato, on the Bologna Apennines, at 407 meters above sea level. GPS coordinates: 44.22352 N, 11.06005 E. From Bologna 52 km (1 hour by car), also reachable by train via Porrettana line (Riola station).
How to book tickets for the Rocchetta Mattei?
Reservation is mandatory and is made online on the official site www.rocchetta-mattei.it in the "Booking" section, or by phone at +39 366 1433 941 (Mon-Fri 8:00-13:30) or +39 351 7373 891 (weekends 9:00-17:30). There is no possibility of free access without reservation. On high season weekends (spring-autumn) book 3-4 weeks in advance.
How much does it cost to visit the Rocchetta Mattei?
The full ticket costs 10.00 €, reduced 5.00 € (youth 13-17, over 65, residents of the Union Bologna Apennines). Free for children under 12 and FAI members. Those arriving by train have the right to a 3 € discount by presenting the regional ticket from Riola station at the cash desk.
Who was Cesare Mattei?
Cesare Mattei (Bologna 1809 - Rocchetta Mattei 1896) was a Bolognese nobleman, moderate politician of the Papal State, founder of the Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna (1837), and inventor of Elettromeopatia, a 19th-century alternative medical system based on vegetable globules and colored electric fluids. He built the Rocchetta Mattei between 1850 and 1888 as personal residence and productive headquarters of Elettromeopatia. Cited in Dostoevskij's The Brothers Karamazov. Died in 1896 without biological heirs, he left the castle to adopted son Mario Venturoli.
What is Mattei's Elettromeopatia?
Elettromeopatia is an alternative medical system invented by Cesare Mattei in the mid-19th century, based on the combination of medicated vegetable globules and colored electric fluids (red, white, green, yellow, blue) intended to rebalance the alleged electrical polarities of the human organism. In the 19th century it became the most practiced alternative medicine in the world (266 world depots in 1914). Never scientifically demonstrated, it was classified as pseudoscience by European medical academies. Today it is no longer practiced in Italy.
How many rooms can be visited at the Rocchetta Mattei?
The guided tour route covers about a dozen rooms, including the most famous: Sala della Pace (Liberty-oriental style, 1918), Sala dei Novanta (with portrait of Cesare Mattei and large oval stained glass), Sala del Telefono (with original 1923 telephone), Sala della Russia, San Michele Chapel, main Arab-Moorish courtyard (partially accessible awaiting 2024-2027 restoration), panoramic towers.
Is it true that Dostoevskij cites the Rocchetta Mattei?
Yes, but indirectly. In *[The Brothers Karamazov](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_fratelli_Karamazov) (1880), Book XI Chapter IX ("Ivan Fyodorovich's Nightmare"), the devil appearing to the character of Ivan Karamazov declares to suffer from rheumatism and to have written "to Count Mattei in Milan" receiving "a book and some drops". The reference is unequivocally to Cesare Mattei and Elettromeopatia, even though Dostoevskij is wrong about the headquarters (Mattei was in Bologna/Riola, not Milan). The citation is proof of the international fame* of the count already in 1880.
How long does the guided tour last?
The standard guided tour lasts about 60-75 minutes. It includes historical presentation in the outer courtyard (10 min), interior visit with stops in all main rooms (40-50 min), access to the panoramic terrace and bookshop (10-15 min). Special thematic visits (Halloween nights, conferences on Elettromeopatia, musical events) can last 2-3 hours.
Is the Rocchetta Mattei managed by FAI?
No. The Rocchetta Mattei is owned by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna (Carisbo) since 2005, and is managed through a tripartite convention between Municipality of Grizzana Morandi, Metropolitan City of Bologna and Union of Municipalities of the Bologna Apennines. The FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano) does not directly manage the site, but its members are entitled to free entry upon reservation.
Can photos be taken inside the Rocchetta Mattei?
Yes, photographs are allowed in all rooms without flash. Not allowed are tripods or large format professional equipment except with prior authorization. For wedding shoots, commercial filming, advertising services it is necessary to request a specific license from the Fondazione Carisbo.
The Alhambra of the Apennines, finally
There is something profoundly anachronistic in the Rocchetta Mattei. A castle citing the 14th-century Alhambra, built on a medieval fortress, financed with the proceeds of a 19th-century pharmaceutical multinational, restored by a 21st-century banking foundation, and visited every year by tens of thousands of people who seek in its rooms the same mixture of mystery, exoticism and wonder that Count Cesare Mattei had conceived 170 years ago as total therapeutic experience.
Because the Rocchetta has never been a simple "fantasy castle" like Neuschwanstein or Sammezzano. For Mattei it was above all a therapeutic device: patients coming from Paris, London, Saint Petersburg or Bombay to be examined crossed Moorish courtyards, climbed stairs adorned with alchemical symbols and received their globules and electric fluids in an atmosphere saturated with esoteric meanings that was an integral part of treatment.
Today, while Elettromeopatia is dead (the last factory closed in 1968), the castle survives, restored and visited, as monument to the dream of a visionary who fused medicine, architecture, art and spirituality in a single project. The new restoration campaign of the Arab-Moorish wing (ongoing until 2027) promises to return us, for the first time since 1944, the complete castle as Cesare Mattei had imagined it.
For those who want to deepen the universe of eclectic buildings and abandoned Italian places, we have dedicated a complete dossier to the 14 most iconic urbex sites in Italy (including Castello di Sammezzano in Tuscany, true Orientalist twin of the Rocchetta), an exploration of [Cretto di Burri of Gibellina](/blog/cretto-di-burri-gibellina-land-art-sicilia) in Sicily, a guide to [San Galgano Abbey](/blog/abbazia-san-galgano-spada-roccia-toscana) in Tuscany, and [urbex in Emilia-Romagna](/it/blog/urbex-emilia-romagna-italia) with all spots surveyed between Bologna, Modena, Parma and Ferrara. The complete map of Italian abandoned places with GPS coordinates is available in our [interactive map](/ma-carte): over 3,200 geo-referenced spots in Italy, of which about 450 in Emilia-Romagna.
The Rocchetta Mattei awaits you, as it has waited for a century and a half, above its rocky spur, in the middle of the beech forests of the Bologna Apennines: a castle-medicine, a castle-laboratory, a castle-temple. An eclectic castle that exists nowhere else in the world.
Deepen with other dossiers
If this dossier intrigued you, discover other abandoned or eccentric castles:
Iconic spots of other Italian regions:
- ●Poveglia: the cursed island of Venice
- ●Cretto di Burri: the tomb-work of Gibellina
To explore all abandoned places of Emilia-Romagna, see our dedicated regional dossier: Urbex Emilia-Romagna: the complete guide (coming soon).
Or discover the 20 most iconic urbex spots in Italy in our pillar article: Abandoned places in Italy.
