After the ownership was acquired from the big condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni in the 1470, about fourteen years after have taken abode to the castle of Malpaga.

Colleoni contributed to the remodelling of the large landed estate and of the complete country of Cavernago, creating a small military construction. After his death the ownership had inherited in the 1551 from Gherardo Martinengo, husband of the sister of the dead person.
Sir Martinengo began the construction of the castle in the 1597. The building had to carry on the function of country house, but the owner wanted to build a fortitude.

If you would like to have any more information abaout the historical period common to all castles of the province of Bergamo,please recall the deepening page

The castle is composed by a quadrate plan surrounded by a deep and wide moat where now there is no more water.
There was a wooden bridge that overcame the big moat connecting with an arcade made of walling set on the other side of the moat.
Afterward the bridge was replaced by another walling arcade that connected perfectly with that old one.

The front door is formed by an arc to all order of notable ray and well done.
In the front door are present many sign that recall the old bridge.

This castle presents the marble symbol of the Martinengo family: the big eagle surrounded from the collar of the Annunziata.

Each front presents numerous windows because of the residential character of the fortitude.

To the sides of the castle there are four towers of small stature few leanings from the structure of the castle.
These towers, don't present any battlement on the higher part but some loggias surrounded from arcs supported from thin columns.

In the median part of the southern front there is a low tower which has a stone bridge that overcomes the moat.
This tower represents the second door of the castle.

The arcades have columns with capitals of Tuscan style on the ground floor and columns with capitals of ionic style on the second one.
The columns support arcs rich of frescos that decorate all the arcade, in particular on the southern one there is a giant figure of Bartolomeo Colleoni.

The wide courtyard presents a well in his wider part, closed by a big grating.

The inside rooms are gaudy and enriched by many frescos and in the past they contained a lot of furniture.

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In this occasion the podesta of Bergamo, worried by the forecast of thousands of people wrote a relation to the senateof Venetiato told it the extraordinary event.

10 May 1602: "it didn't ever see the country our more day of this cheerful, in which for the wedding of Caterina, daughter of the Count Francis Martinengo married in Enzio Bentivoglio, they were as many the plays, merry-go-rounds, championships with grand martial apparatuses, comic, fairy, noble fictions, glorious shows, chivalrous risks, sweet music, fairy dances, today and in the following days presented in Cavernago, that to the solemn get-togethers assistants from 20,000 persons, each always silent for the amazement and the greatness."