Obizzi

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The Obizzi, who claimed descent from the Frankish Counts of Burgundy were a prominent Italian noble family of Padua, who amassed great political power and wealth as feudatories of the Este, and are noted as early as the eleventh century. The head of the great Guelf family has been the Marchese degli Obizzi del Catajo, ending with the death of marchese Tommaso degli Obizzi in 1805.

The Obizzi family is noted for its military triumphs and even provided a private army to protect the Pope ^[1]. In the 1570s, Pio Enea degli Obizzi, a wealthy condottiero, constructed the enormous Castello del Catajo in Battaglia Terme, near Padua; he hired the poet Giuseppe Betussi to record a glamorous version of Obizzi family history and had a main room frescoed by Giovanni Battista Zelotti in the 1570s, in tribute to the degli Obizzi family.^[2] In the 19th century, the Castello's collections were enriched with coins and medals, musical instruments and paintings. The complex was inherited by Karl I, the last Emperor and King of Austria-Hungary, and was sequestered as war reparations by the Italian State, which sold it in 1926 to the Dalla Francesca family, who currently open it to the public^[3]. Iin the early 1900s members of the Obizzi family immigrated to the United States , where they are known as Degli Obizzi.^[4]

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