Seminars and company events
Castello di Malpaga hosts meetings, company dinners, Christmas parties and civil weddings for groups of 20 to about 120 guests, with up to 200 in the courtyard in its largest layout. The castle stands in the hamlet of Malpaga, in the municipality of Cavernago, a few minutes from Bergamo in Lombardy.
For companies, the castle sets out four spaces in its meeting offer, each with daylight and a ceiling height of 4 to 5 meters. The events team shapes the day around coffee breaks, buffets and dinners, and arranges audio and video equipment and extra activities on request. A small board meeting fits Sala Medea, a workshop Sala Tisbe, and a plenary session or a seated dinner Sala Colleoni. In December the castle runs a company Christmas offer built around a historical dinner in its banqueting hall, with costumed service, period tableware and candlelight. Guided tours and historical fencing sessions can fill a break or close the day.
Weddings and receptions
Civil ceremonies are held inside the castle, and religious ceremonies take place in a small church nearby. The wedding offer uses three reception halls that work in every season, with the Cortile d'Onore for summer drinks. A member of staff follows each couple through the planning. The castle also takes birthday parties and bachelor and bachelorette parties, some of them staged around the 14th-century moat.
Rooms and capacities
Sala Colleoni covers 85 square meters, holds up to 100 guests and keeps frescoes by Fogolino, a wooden coffered ceiling and a working fireplace. The Cortile d'Onore, 127 square meters, is the courtyard framed by two loggias frescoed by Romanino, listed for 120 guests and up to 200 in its largest layout, for summer use. Sala Tisbe, 28 square meters, takes up to 40 under a vaulted ceiling painted by Pietro Ricchi. Sala Medea, 30 square meters, takes up to 20 under another Ricchi vault. Each room has two or three entrances.
Accommodation
Suite della Torre offers six luxury suites in a medieval tower, with original beams, exposed stone and bathtubs, breakfast served in the room and free parking. The Locanda dei Nobili Viaggiatori adds rooms that look toward the castle, the mountains and the plain.
Catering
The Locanda dei Nobili Viaggiatori serves traditional Bergamo cooking in stone dining rooms and on a terrace facing the castle. The Giardino degli Scudi bistro, in the former stables inside the village walls, runs bar and cafe service. The site does not say whether event menus come from these kitchens or from an outside caterer, so ask when you request a quote.
History and setting
A Ghibelline lord founded the castle in the 14th century, and it later passed to the Comune di Bergamo. On April 29, 1456, the condottiero Bartolomeo Colleoni bought it, then in poor repair, for 100 gold ducats and made it his home. He added a wing, rebuilt the village around it and received a king of Denmark among his guests. After his death in 1475, his Martinengo-Colleoni heirs kept it for centuries. The Crespi family acquired it in 1924, and since 2010 the company Malpaga S.p.A. has restored the castle and the village with original materials. The site lies within the Parco del Fiume Serio.
Getting there
The address is Piazza Castello, Frazione Malpaga, Cavernago, in the province of Bergamo. Bergamo and its airport at Orio al Serio are a short drive away.
