Now listed as a national monument, Torrechiara Castle was built between 1448 and 1460 by Pier Maria Rossi, known as ‘the Magnificent’, a condottiere (captain) and count of nearby San Secondo who fought alongside the Sforza during local battles for power when the Parma area was under the Duchy of Milan. At age 15, he married the daughter of a local count with whom he had ten children. But his true, lifelong love was Bianca Pellegrini, a noblewoman Rossi met in Milan and for whom he built the magnificent Torrechiara Castle
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