Il castrum di Belforte presso Varese: mito, realtà e memoria. Il fallimento di un progetto politico nel Seprio in età federiciana

[Autom. eng. transl.] The memory of a city of Belforte, of very ancient foundation, contained in various late medieval Milanese chronicles is explained by the events that occurred at the castle of the same name in the twelfth century. During the clash between Frederick I and Milan the aristocracy of Seprio (which expressed the consular magistracy of Sepri) sided with the emperor and elected the castle of Belforte as its main seat, transferring all political activities and which previously had been based in nearby Varese, with the intention of striking the latter location as it belongs to the temporal jurisdiction of the fiercely anti-Federician Ambrosian archbishopric. The attempt to build an alternative to Varese failed due to the change in the political framework that led to the final defeat of the emperor and the restoration of the Milanese hegemony in the Sepriese territory, which was followed by the progressive abandonment of the fortification, the transformation into a rural home and the birth of the myth fueled by the ruins left on the ground.