The castle was built at the time of the Republic of Genoa to protect the coast of the Tigullio area. Some sources indicate 1626 as the year when its construction was decided. The castle was occupied by Napoleonic forces between 1812 and 1814, at the time of the First French Empire. The structure, which underwent several changes across the centuries, later became a private residence. In the 1990s, the then owners, the Bonomi Bolchini family, rented the property to Silvio Berlusconi.