Isola di Loreto Castle (Italy)

At the end of the fifteenth century the island was bought by the Sisters of Santa Chiara of Brescia, who installed a convent there. However, the structure was already abandoned by 1580 when, during the visit of Carlo Borromeo, the presence of a hermit named Pietro is remembered.

In 1696 Vincenzo Maria Coronelli, a Venetian geographer, remembers the island as belonging to the heirs of Count Alessandro Martinengo.

The writer Costanzo Ferrari, in his historical novel Tiburga Oldofredi - Historical scenes of the thirteenth century published in 1847, sets some scenes on the island.

The historian Gabriele Rosa recalls at the end of the nineteenth century that there were traces of "ruins of walls and two square towers", probably remains of ancient fortifications, and "the vestiges of a small chapel facing east, as was used before 1500". Also in the Alpine Guide of the province of Brescia of 1889, the presence of some ancient abandoned convents and one in a good state of conservation are reported on the island.

The island then became the property of the Duchess Felicita Bevilacqua La Masa, and after her death, with an act dated 9 October 1900, it was sold to comm. Vincenzo Richeri, vessel captain in the Regia Marina.

In the following decade, the cav. Vincenzo Richieri built a neo-Gothic style castle on the island around which he created a garden full of conifers, a small harbor and two light towers.