Castles in the province of Isernia is an itinerary that develops through the Molise.
Introduction
In the upper part of theMolise Apennines, in what is currently configured from the administrative point of view as the province of Isernia, we can find a substantial number of fortifications that made the centers born on the tops of the hills well equipped in the epoch ofembedding. Many have been lost, destroyed by wars or by frequent earthquakes and even by landslides. Several have been preserved, more or less decorously. The most interesting of this part of Molise, where we can distinguish the three homogeneous areas ofIsernino, ofUpper Molise he was born in Venafrano are the following.
How to get
Stages
Castles in the province of Isernia: full screen map.Isernino
- 1 Carmignano Castle (to Acquaviva d'Isernia). In the second half of the 18th century the castle passed to Andrea Carmignano, who held it until the 19th century when feudalism was abolished. It was used as a stately home, with a square plan, where the structure rises on the four medieval bastions.
- 2 Caldora Castle (to Carpinone). In 1064, year of construction, it constituted a fortification of the county ofIsernia. It was rebuilt in the 14th century by Jacopo Caldora. Later it belonged to the d'Evoli family and to the Aragonese.
- The castle, although damaged by the earthquake of 1805, is in excellent shape and perfectly restored, with two surviving circular towers and the rectangular body, from which a large wing winds its way into the stables and the floors for guests. It also has a courtyard.
- 3 Baronial palace (to Castelpizzuto). The castle has the imposing structure typical of medieval military fortresses. : A cylindrical and severed corner tower is inserted in the building. In the Renaissance period it underwent the first transformations from a fortress to a residential home. In the last century the building was divided among the new owners, undergoing further modifications and internal divisions. It overlooks a small square in front of the village church. Its original facade has been permanently compromised, it has been partially plastered and new openings have been created.
Pandone Castle (Cerro al Volturno)
- 4 Pandone Castle (to Cerro al Volturno). The castle was built in the 12th century for the protection of the Volturno valley and of the same abbey of San Vincenzo al Volturno, quite distant from the fortified village. The castle in the eighteenth century was in possession of the Carafa. It is located on the top of the rocky spur of Cerro, and has a square plan that develops from the four bastions. It preserves three circular towers, built by the Aragonese, while a part has been transformed into a baronial residence, which therefore clashes with the medieval style.
- 5 Old Castle (to Stoves). Dating back to the 15th century, the castle is a sort of fortified residence, from which the walls around the medieval village stretched out. The marquis palace is characterized by a large entrance with an upper architrave, marked on the two sides of the branch by cylindrical corner towers. In 1744 Charles III of Spain (Charles III of Bourbon) stayed there.
- 6 Palazzo Zampino (to Frosolone). The building is located in the historic center of the town and more precisely in the place where the ancient castle was built during the Lombard domination. The main entrance starts from a portal with a round arch in stone, which is reached by means of a stone staircase. This portal opens onto the internal garden, instead in order to enter the building there is a second door. The lower part consists of a series of blind load-bearing arches that rest on the walls and support the upper floor which was intended only for the nobility. A narrow staircase in the central arch allows you to reach a door of humble appearance and size which in ancient times represented the ancient service entrance of the building.
- 7 Castello D'Alena (to Macchia d'Isernia). The castle rests its foundations on a fortress built in Norman times for defense purposes. Around the first half of 1100 the building was the residence of Clementina, daughter of Roger II the Norman, king of Sicily, who married Ugone di Molise. The castle has an irregular rectangular plan, built in hewn stone. Of particular interest are the loggia of the facade with large arches and a small windowed pulpit overlooking the square.
- 8 Pandone-Caracciolo Castle (to Macchiagodena). There is no news of Macchiagodena relating to the Norman and Swabian periods, it is known instead that at the beginning of the Angevin era, in 1269, it was granted as a fief by Charles I of Anjou to the French knight Barrasio di Barrasio. For several years it was owned by the Cantelmo family, perhaps starting as early as 1422, the year of a rescript of Queen Giovanna II in which Giovanni Cantelmo is reported as the owner of the university. He was followed by the Pandone family who remained there until Enrico Pandone sold the fiefdom to the Mormiles.
- The plan of the castle is polygonal in shape and develops around a square-shaped building. Very interesting are some details regarding the entrance, such as the round room at the end of the second access ramp. The stairs lead to the main floor, in which there were, but no longer visible, painted tables, friezes, a Roman fireplace and a Gothic window. Today the interiors are instead characterized by the simplicity of the furnishings and in the library alone there are nineteenth-century furnishings and shelves full of ancient and precious volumes, especially of the medical genre. In the basement, now closed, there was probably an escape route, which led to an area of the underlying rock called the "precipice" (even a popular legend has it that several souls still haunt the castle in these tunnels).
- 9 Towers of the castle (to Peaches). Castrum Pescharum was owned byMontecassino Abbey since its foundation. It was located above the oldest nucleus of Pesche, and was built according to the pattern of the castles ofAbruzzo of the plain of Navelli: triangular plan with three intermediate towers. In fact the castle was a lookout on the sheep track that gives Pescasseroli led to Foggia. The castle was operational until the seventeenth century, when probably due to natural disasters it fell into disrepair and collapsed. Today it is possible to visit its ruins, perfectly recovered, which consist of arches of doors and walls that merge with the rock of the mound above which it towered, and in at least three circular towers with battlements decoration.
- 10 Riporse Castle (to Pettoranello del Molise). It can be reached via a dirt road in a wood, in the municipality of Pettoranello but not far from Longano. The enclosure, invaded by dense vegetation, rests on a small embankment of earth that forms a platform. It has an approximately quadrangular plan with two semicircular towers on the southern side, the only survivors of the four that exist. Inside the enclosure, the remains of a square tower and a large cistern survive. The walls are laid with stone elements of small size on rows only in regularized sections and bound with abundant mortar.
- Ducal Palace (to Rionero Sannitico). We have reliable news of Rionero at least since 1039 when, immediately after the death of the emperor Conrad, it was usurped by the Borrellos who on that occasion, as the Chronicle of the Monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno tells us, showed a ferocity that could not be seen. from the time of the Saracen massacre of 881. During the Norman dominion it was given as a fief to some local lords and in the mid-twelfth century to Oderisio de Rigo Nigro who held it together with a part of Montenero, Fara and Civitavecchia which together were worth an income that forced him to support two soldiers in the 'army. Oderisio also held the fiefs of Collalto and Castiglione which today are sparsely inhabited hamlets of Rionero, while Montalto belonged at that time to Berardo son of Ottone. After having been part of the lands of S. Vincenzo, nothing is known of the first non-ecclesiastical feudal lords. The original structure of the keep remains, which still holds a cistern in its underground part that collected all the rainwater with a system of canalizations. The various levels are still connected by a valuable, albeit simple, spiral staircase entirely in stone which was most likely built when the keep was transformed into a sort of secondary entrance with the opening of a door in direct contact with the external public space. .
- 11 Roccamandolfi Castle (to Roccamandolfi). The first reliable information we have about the castle dates back to 1195, the year in which the war was underway between the Swabian troops of Emperor Henry VI and those of Tancredi D'Altavilla, who were competing for the Kingdom of Sicily. But the same fief was at the center of the famous war of Molise, in 1221, when Count Tommaso di Celano, he took refuge there after having left his family and most of the troops safe in the Castle of Bojano. Unfortunately the choice was not very happy, Count Tommaso had to leave the castle during the night and take refuge in Celano. The castle thus underwent a long siege, at the end of which all the lands of the count of Molise were confiscated. The original walls of the Castle were typically defensive walls, very thick, and protected by five towers, one of which was decidedly larger and more imposing than the others. The access ramp, dug directly into the rock, led into a sort of atrium of which today the ground floor is slightly higher than the original one. The residence floor of the nobles had to be very comfortable and large, as well as the spaces intended for the warehouse and the armigers, which had to contain food reserves for a long period for the survival of the fortress. What remains today of the ancient stronghold is unfortunately little compared to what could be admired of one of the fortresses considered the safest in the entire Molise area.
- 12 Castello d'Evoli (to Roccasicura). The oldest known toponym of the town, Roccha Siconis, leads back to the Lombard Sicone I, prince of Benevento. The primordial cluster of houses developed below the fortress, near the Maltempo stream, where the presence of the ancient church of S. Leonardo is remembered. Subsequently the inhabited center gradually moved higher and higher, close to the rocky ridge, at the foot of the castle, in the area now known as the land. The fortification was enlarged in the following period (X and XI century). The counts of Borrello first became fiefdoms in the castle, probably responsible for the construction of the monastery of S Benedetto (donated by Randisio in 1035 to the monastic community of San Pietro Avellana), then the counts de 'Moulins. From the Catalogus Baronum (1150-1168) the castrum of Roccasicura it is referred to as Rocca Siccem. Later, in the 13th century, the town is called Rocca Sicona and later Rocca Ciconia or Cicuta. In 1269 the fortification, again referred to as Rocca Siconis, was included among the possessions donated by Charles of Anjou to the officers of his army and, in 1296, among the rebel countries that paid the focatico (tax on fires) as a punishment for the revolt carried out against King Charles himself.
- The castle today is almost a ruin, however recovered, and consists of a rocky spur used as a lookout, and two towers. The first has a circular plan, while the other has been transformed into a quadrangular tower with a clock for the town hall.
- 13 Battiloro Castle (to Rocchetta a Volturno). The medieval village is located on the slopes of the Mainarde, in the hamlet of Rocchetta Alta. The ancient nucleus develops all around the rock and is well preserved in its original structure; the shops on the ground floor, such as a Peaches, are dug into the rock while the Church of Santa Maria is next to the door of the village. The castle, owned by the Pandone family and later by the Battiloro family, is perched on a prominent limestone spur, clearly visible even from a considerable distance. It has four elevations that have different characteristics from each other and characteristics that recall other military installations in the nearby province of Frosinone. Over time, the castle has taken on residential characteristics even if some sections of ancient walls survive which refer to the primitive military function.
- 14 Baronial palace (to Sant'Elena Sannita). It was the residence of the counts and lords who have held the fortunes of the town for centuries. Presumably at the beginning of its history the town could boast a similar structure in its urban planning, in fact it has always been subjected to the will of these landowners. We know the name of Ugo De Camelo, first owner of the lands of Cameli in memory of which we have the ancient name of the town. Of interest is the portico of the internal cloister, with a well. The loggia is on two levels.
- 15 Battiloro Palace (to Bachelors). The castle also known as Palazzo Battiloro today is identified with the Scarupato, an entrance that leads to the patrol path and that embraces the whole ancient village of the town. The castle was built around 982 following a concession contract stipulated by the colonists with the monks of San Vincenzo. Unfortunately in 1984 the earthquake caused extensive damage to the structure which was immediately restored. Three of its four facades overlook streets and squares, while the last one faces a private property. The bodies added to the original structure are many as evidence of the many recovery works. The palace stands on four levels. The external walls fall overhanging the rock as evidence of the fortress character that the castle originally had. The main entrance is called "Sporto" and can be reached by a staircase as well as supporting a balcony. This entrance, however, with a door inside the castle, but to the “Scarupato”, a corridor that leads to the patrol path. On the right side of this entrance there are a series of round arches that give life to a loggia from which you can admire the town. On the contrary, on the left side there are some shops that in the past were used by artisans.
Upper Molise
- Sanfelice Castle (to Bagnoli del Trigno). The castle was built in the 12th century on the rock overlooking the town, in correspondence with a minor spur where the church of San Silvestro rests. It was owned by the Counts ofIsernia, the Caldora and the D'Avalos. From 1548 to 1768 it was owned by the Sanfelice, from which it took its name. After the Second World War it lost the upper part, but it was recovered and made open to the public. The structure is particular because it is built with the stone of the same mountain on which it rests, and perfectly preserved medieval arches, the cellars with the cistern and the well can be visited.
- Alessandro Castle (to Civitanova del Sannio). The residence of the Duke of Alessandro rises near the church of S. Silvestro Papa, located in the historic center of the town. Not much is known about the period of its construction, it is thought that the Alessandro family ruled the fief of Pescolanciano from 1576 and kept it until the overthrow of feudalism. The same fiefdom as Civitanova del Sannio it became the property of the d'Alessandro family; so the palace was certainly built by the d'Alessandro family, who settled in the town from the second half of the seventeenth century. This residence has been structurally modified over the years to be adapted to a common home. Of the original structure remain a scarp wall and a beautiful hanging garden that welcomes centuries-old trees. The facade of the building was plastered with gray and light tempera. The access portal is located on a small square flanked by a staircase. Internally it cannot be accessed because the structure is inhabited by private individuals.
Alessandro Castle (Pescolanciano)
- D'Alessandro medieval castle (to Pescolanciano). It is now a consolidated opinion that the castle was built on an original Samnite fortified site, although certain archive documents show a fortress presence only from the time of Alboino, around 573 AD. Some historians, on the other hand, believe that the construction dates back to the aforementioned date, that is, dating back to the time of Charlemagne (810 c.a.) or that of Corrado il Salico (1024). : Some testimonies report that with the descent of Frederick II the territory of Pescolanciano was ruled by a feudal lord, Ruggero di Peschio-Langiano, who received orders from the Swabian to remove the Caldora di Carpinone, dismantling their castle and to besiege Isernia and those fiefs hostile to King Frederick. This expedition was certainly organized in the fortress then existing and started from it in 1224. The fiefdom, bordering the nearby village of S. Maria dei Vignali, abandoned after the earthquake of 1456, was crossed by an important communication node, which it connected the high localities of the central Abruzzo Apennines with the coastal ones of the "Tavoliere di Puglia".
- The castle is one of the best preserved in Molise, and can also be partially visited. It has an irregular plan, because one part is of medieval origin, while the other was added in the eighteenth century. The oldest part is characterized by a quadrangular tower, with a large loggia on the longer side. The new part has only rectangular windows in relief. The interior houses a collection of ceramics, as well as preserves the courtyard with cellars and stables.
- Ducal Palace (to Poggio Sannita). Built towards the end of the 15th century and home to the dukes of Caccavone, it was restored for the first time by Duke Nicola Petra in the 18th century, after a long period of neglect, and was inhabited until the beginning of the 19th century. it was renamed "Royal Palace" because it is thought (between history and legend) that one of the Bourbon queens of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, visiting the area, stayed there for a short time. After a long period of neglect and neglect that had reduced it to little more than a ruin, the Municipality of Poggio Sannita restored it and reopened it to the public on October 15, 1994. The Palazzo Ducale is characterized by an imposing facade entirely rebuilt in stone. facing local, facing north-west over the Verrino valley with a "breathtaking" view that reaches up to Capracotta. The building located in Corso Garibaldi, in the heart of the historic center of Poggese, is structured on four very large floors, with three entrances in addition to the main one. Equipped with a fully equipped conference room, among the best in the province, capable of accommodating up to 200 people comfortably seated.
- Castle-enclosure of the Pandone family (to Vastogirardi). Its typology suggests the castles-enclosures of the Abruzzo-Molise area whose closest example (by geography and typology) is that of Peaches: even there the strut is absent, unlike the other examples of the same type. It carried out its control function on the sheep track until the 18th century. The castle is well preserved and is accessible from an arch with the Pandone coat of arms. The structure is that of a residential nucleus with an elliptical plan, which also includes the parish church.
Venafrano
- 16 Palazzo Caracciolo - Longobard tower (to Belmonte del Sannio). It was founded in the 12th century by Count Oderisio d'Avalos, together with a Norman tower, previously erected by the Lombards. The castle underwent many transformations and today it is visible as an eighteenth-century stately palace. The tower is still well preserved and has a cylindrical plan, with a door and a window on the upper floor.
- Medieval towers and baronial palace (to Montaquila). The castle, built in the 13th century, had to perform a defensive function of Montaquila, which was located further downstream. The towers have a circular plan and only two are perfectly recognizable, now merging with the town. However, they maintain their structure with the top decorated with battlements. The baronial palace is located outside the village, with the quadrangular plan of a fortified stone building.
Pignatelli Castle (Monteroduni 1
- 17 Pignatelli Castle (to Monteroduni). The castle was built by the Lombards, and embellished in the fifteenth century following an earthquake that altered its structure. It was a fief of the d'Evoli, the Caracciolos and finally the Pignatelli, who restored it after the earthquake of 1805. The structure has a rectangular plan with four circular towers, decorated with battlements. The façade still has the Pignatelli coat of arms above the portal, which is surmounted by a balcony decorated with corbels.
- Angevin Castle (to Sesto Campano). In the Regesti Angioini of 1320 a place called "Rocca Piperocii" is mentioned, undoubtedly to be identified with the current fortified center of Roccapipirozzi, a hamlet of Sesto Campano. The fortress stands in the center of the town and the perimeter structure has an irregular shape conditioned by the natural adaptation of the rock spur on which it develops. The cylindrical tower is the most striking element of the defensive complex and in its natural state, it has at the top a crown of corbels on which rested a projecting plane for the plumbing defense.
- The castle was damaged by the earthquake of 1805, and for this reason only a part of it is still standing. It consists of a huge circular tower, with retaining walls, decorated with battlements and corbels, equipped with a second minor tower, and an entrance.
- 18 Spinola Castle (to Sesto Campano). The palace built by the Lombard Arechi has an irregular plan and adapts to the decline of the slope. It is spread over three levels and has a large courtyard inside. On the north side there is a square tower with no crowns. The Lombard elements such as the moat, the drawbridge and several crenellated towers have been lost over the centuries. The most important element is the limestone portal from which you enter the internal courtyard, dated 1512 and enriched with decorations. With the restoration work on the ground floor, the large courtyard was cleared of some buildings built inside, to be used as an open-air theater. The latter also includes the rooms located in the wing of the building overlooking Largo Montebello. The first floor was renovated in order to accommodate the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions of the Municipality of Sesto Campano, while the second floor was intended to house three "museum collections": archaeological, historical and scientific.
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Pandone Castle (Venafro)
- 19 Pandone Castle (to Venafro). Located on the northwestern edge of the Venafro Roman, originates from a megalithic fortification subsequently transformed into the square Longobard keep. This transformation took place when Count Paldefrido placed his seat there in the 10th century. In the fourteenth century, three circular towers and the crenellated branch were added to the square keep. It was completely transformed in the 15th century by the Pandone, lords of Venafro; it was defended on three sides by a large moat which involved the entire population in its construction. The moat was never fully completed due to a popular uprising that claimed the poor conditions in which she was forced to work. The castle was accessed via a drawbridge to the west and a postern to the east. Positions that allowed access to one knight at a time and therefore could be controlled by only one guard. Enrico Pandone transformed it into a Renaissance residence by adding an Italian garden, an airy loggia and frescoing it with the images of his mighty horses. Horses for the count represented his main activity. Even today, the portraits of horses in life size, twenty-six in number and made in slight relief, decorate the entire main floor and constitute an exclusive for the castle of Venafro. In the hall of war horses, the silhouette of the horse San Giorgio stands out, donated by Henry to Charles V. Henry was always devoted to Charles V until Lotrec's descent from France. Charles V got the better of the French and the betrayal cost Henry the beheading in Naples. Below the patrol plan, a walkway with slits allowed the manor to be controlled from the moat level. The walkway is entirely passable. In the seventeenth century the castle, after being of the viceregal Lannoy family, passed to the Peretti-Savellis, family of Sixtus V, and in the following century to the powerful family of the di Capua. Giovanni di Capua transformed it into his residence in view of the marriage he should have contracted with Maria Vittoria Piccolomini, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Major works were undertaken including the removal of most of the horses made by Enrico Pandone. Marriage that remained a dream for the immature death of Giovanni. The advanced state of the preparations for this event had led to its realization in the great coat of arms, which is still in the hall, where the union of the coats of arms of the two families recalls an event that never happened. After years of restoration work, which like all interventions has happy and less happy moments, the Castello di Venafro hosts conferences and exhibitions and can be visited every day. Since 2013 the Castle has been the seat of the National Museum of Molise, with a rich art gallery of Molise artistic testimonies, compared with other state-owned ones, coming from the deposits of the Capodimonte and San Martino Museums in Naples, the National Gallery of Ancient Art in Rome and the Royal Palace of Caserta. : The itinerary is divided into two sections: the castle, a "museum of itself", with its urban, architectural and decorative values, and the exhibition on the second floor of frescoes, sculptures, canvases, drawings and prints, in an itinerary which documents the chronology - from the Middle Ages to the Baroque - and the different cultural orientations of clients and artists in Molise.
