Via dell'Arco gate

Climbing down the Via dell'Arco one finds an ancient access gate with a small tower with dovecote on the top of it. A memorial stone above the gate, with the coat of arms of the Morandos (three Moors' heads in profile), reminds us of the building of the marble bridge above the Trebbia river, which was built in 1686 by Morando Morandi, the then lord of Montechiaro.
The three-arched bridge lasted just 14 years because Morando, due to his vanity, did not heed the advice of a member of the Anguissolas, the family who a few years earlier sold him the castle and had suggested him to build the bridge upstream, on more solid rocks.