If you drive along state road 16 near Battaglia Terme (about 1 km before or after depending on the direction) you will certainly notice the monumental building in oriental style, considered the manor of the Euganean Hills.

The visit to the Catajo Castle is undoubtedly worth a trip.

A bit of history:
The initial nucleus of the castle dates back to end 15th - beginning 16th century.
In 1570 Pio Enea I Obizzi (a Burgundian family settled in the territory of Venice since the early 1000's) decided to expand the building with the part today called "Castel Vecchio".
With the extinction of the Obizzi family, in 1803 the castle passed to the Duke of Modena (House Habsburg-Este) who built the upper part of the castle, called "Castel Nuovo". The castle was then left to the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
At the end of World War I the manor became property of the Italian State and in 1929 the property passed to private owners.
In 2016 the first renovation works began to restore the castle to its original splendor.

A legend:
as all the castles worthy of such name, also the Catajo has its ghost: dressed in blue, Lucrezia degli Obizzi, barbarously murdered in November 1654 by a rejected suitor, wanders looking out the windows of the castle.

And let's debunk a legend:
To increase its charm the name Catajo was said to derive from Katai, the mythical China visited by Marco Polo.
A little more prosaically the name comes from the place where it was built: Ca' Tajo, a Venetian name that could be referred to the "cutting" of plots due to the Battaglia canal.

For more info:
www.castellodelcatajo.it
wikipedia: Castello del Catajo
www.turismopadova.it: il catajo

Il Catajo
via Catajo 1
35041 Battaglia Terme (PD)
Tel: 0039 0499100411 0039 3298391663
info@castellodelcatajo.it

Thanks to our friend Massimo for the permission of publishing his images.