The Roglio fortified house is no castle and has no visitor entrance: it is a private home, in the valley that carries its name, west of the built-up area of Celle Ligure. Sources list it among the municipality's military architecture together with the fortified houses of Cassisi and Bottini: three buildings that served for control and lookout on the western side of the village, in defence of the territory. They were not siege works but watch points on the slope, and time has let them become houses.
What to see
Of the three western fortified houses the sources preserve the name, the position and the purpose, not a detailed description. Roglio stands in the valley of the same name, Cassisi on the hill that shares its name, Bottini ended up inside a nineteenth-century building that almost completely conceals it. All three are private property today, and that is the first thing to reckon with.
Roglio is best read within the rest of Celle's watch system. In the sixteenth century the fear of pirate raids pushed the village, backed by the Republic of Genoa, to build two works known as di Levante and di Ponente, recorded in an inventory of 1598. On the ridge stood the Bregalla tower, 261 metres above sea level and circular in plan, a coastal lookout later turned over to farming and demolished by German soldiers in 1944, judged too convenient a landmark for the Anglo-American navy. Still standing are the two crenellated Cornaro towers, La Camilla and the Bacci one, which command the valley down to the sea.
Visiting
There are no opening hours, tickets or guided tours: the interiors are private. You climb west from the old centre of Celle, which grew along the Ghiare torrent and is now largely covered over. The town has a station on the Genoa-Ventimiglia line and its own exit on the A10 motorway, and the SS1 Aurelia runs through it; from there on you walk, between terraces of taggiasca olives and vegetable plots.
Our editors' tip
We treat it as a stage rather than a destination. Half a day on foot on the western slope, taking in the Cornaro towers and the Bregalla ridge, is worth far more than a car detour to look at a wall. Count on closed shoes, water and no signposting, and stay on the road: the people who live there should not pay for our curiosity.