Parco della Rocca Borromea - Arona

The lake-view castle that was the birthplace of St Charles Borromeo

The Rocca Borromea of Arona is a defensive construction overlooking Lake Maggiore, located on a hill that, due to its strategic position, has been frequented since prehistoric times and is now a public park. 
Of the complex, the remains of the three fortified enclosures with 12 towers (of which the bases are still visible), the donjon (or Rocchetta), the Romanesque oratory of S. Ambrogio (11th century), the Hall of Arms and the residential palace where San Carlo Borromeo was born in 1538, survive in a state of ruins.
An initial fortified nucleus was probably founded around the year 1000 for defensive purposes by local feudal lords, later passing from episcopal ownership to possession by the Visconti in 1227. From 1439, when Arona was assigned as a fiefdom to Vitaliano I Borromeo, it became the property of the powerful family, who maintained it for four centuries, enlarging it in a similar form to the neighbouring Rocca Borromea in Angera.
The Rocca di Arona was reduced to a state of ruin in 1800 by the Napoleonic army.
Since 2011, the site has been accessible as a public park with an unparalleled view of the lake.
 

The park with the remains of the Rocca is open to visitors with free admission and can be reached by car (Via alla Rocca), continuing on an easy dirt road, or by hiking along a path from the centre of Arona (Via Cantoni). There is a bar-restaurant at the top of the hill.