Castello

Castello is a pipe brand founded in 1947 by Carlo Scotti in Cantù, a town in Italy's province of Como known for its furniture and craft traditions. Regarded as the pioneer of post-war Italian handmade pipes gaining international prestige, the workshop is still run today by the founder's family.

It is reported that in choosing this name Scotti was influenced by the fact that the word has similar counterparts in many European languages (castle, castillo, castelo) and that it sounded pleasing.

Founding and Workshop Philosophy

Carlo Scotti never saw his firm as a factory. His words "I do not run a factory but a craft workshop; my pipes are the work of skilled hands, heart, and imagination" are considered a principle that still sums up the brand's identity today. In the early 1980s, management passed to Scotti's daughter Savina Scotti and her husband Franco "Kino" Coppo; the nickname "Kino" (short for "Franchino") was given to Coppo by Scotti himself. Under Kino's leadership production peaked at the end of the 1980s, exceeding 8,000 pipes a year; even so, the tradition of every pipe passing through and being graded by a single person was preserved. Today the workshop is run by Franco Coppo's daughter, the founder's granddaughter Stephanie Coppo; the brand celebrated its 75th founding anniversary as a family company in 2022. The workshop has operated on the same street in Cantù, Via Fossano, since its founding.