Palazzo Fregoso

The complex known as the “ex Monastero di Colturano” (also known as “Palazzo Visconti Fregoso”) is located in the center of the agricultural village of Colturano, the capital of the municipality of the same name in the metropolitan city of Milan. The building, under the protection of the competent Superintendency since 1982, is located along Via Vittorio Emanuele and is arranged around a rectangular courtyard, once enclosed but now open to the east with a large green space intended as a garden. The courtyard retains significant traces of the original medieval portico, with Gothic arches on the ground floor that are completely walled on the north side, while partially open on the remaining south and west sides.

On the first floor, along the north and west sides of the courtyard, there is a loggia with brick pillars, whose openings are currently filled and interspersed with modern windows. Built in the medieval era, its ecclesiastical origin is uncertain, likely serving as a grange of the Cistercian or Humiliati orders, though no historical records are available on the matter. The complex belonged between the 14th and 15th centuries to certain branches of the powerful Visconti dynasty, later passing to the knight Antonio Fileremo Fregoso, poet and gentleman at the Ducal Court of the Sforzas, who was married to the noble Fiorbellina Visconti.

Later, between the 16th and 17th centuries, Fregoso’s descendants divided the building into various properties, which were transferred respectively to the Ospedale della Pietà of Milan (later becoming the Pio Albergo Trivulzio) and to the Scotti counts (later Gallarati-Scotti); the latter passed on their portion to the noble families of the Castelbarco and Melzi d’Eril in the 18th and 19th centuries. The palace is currently privately owned and has undergone conservation restoration work on both the facade and the recovery of frescoes under the supervision of the Superintendency of Architectural Heritage in the province of Milan.