Monte Castello (625 m a.s.l.) is situated in the Val di Sur (Gardone Riviera, Brescia) on the crest overlooking the valleys of the Poiano and Buelino torrents and the central part of the valley, in particular the southern slopes of Mt. Lavino (960 m) and Mt. Pizzocolo (1573 m).
The campaign to evaluate the archeological deposits involved core samples and four trial trenches. A sequence of several phases was identified: a prehistoric settlement, a phase dating to between the Iron Age and Roman period, and a medieval phase.

Flint tools and minute fragments of handmade pottery with very course clay fabrics, found in a layer without structures, seem to date to at least the Bronze Age, if not earlier. A quadrangular structure with dry-stone walls, c 7 × 7 m, of uncertain function, produced finds dating from the Iron Age to the Roman period. Lastly, a 2nd century coin, six coins from the 4th-5th centuries and a bronze dice were found in the upper levels, which were also without structures. If they do not relate to the final use of the rectangular building, they may relate to the occasional presence of soldiers, during a phase when the entire pre-Alpine region, between Verona and Brescia, was the theatre of multiple military episodes. The same interpretation may also be suggested by two Carrarese coins (1390-1405), perhaps associated with one of the events during the conflict between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan.
No walls were found relating to the castle, mentioned in a document of 1420, in the first campaign. Their absence may depend on it having timber defensive structures or the reorganisation, in the medieval period, of the entire summit area for the planting of a chestnut wood. Excavations will continue over a wide area in 2018 in order to define the entire sequence.