A Heritage of Castles

By M.J.Cryan

Several stone towers guard the Via Cassia as it winds its way north from Rome into what was once the Etruscan territory of Veio. Ivy-covered and discreet, they blend into the countryside with only their jagged tops peeking above the neat rows of Mediterranean pines. Once part of an extensive signalling system, these towers were used to send messages by means of night-time torches. Thus warnings of pirate incursions and other emergencies were relayed from the sea coast, where other towers stood guard, as far inland as the Umbrian border in a matter of hours.

As one drives out of Rome into the Lazio countryside such towers and vestiges of other severe constructions are a part of the landscape and it seems that every other hilltop is crowned with a castle and its surrounding village.

This extensive system of forts, castles and fortified towers was needed to guard the boundaries of the territory which was once the Papal States and which today roughly coincides with the boundaries of the Lazio region. Even today in the area counts at least 80 localities in which the term castello is conserved in their names: Castelmadama and Castelnuovo di Porto near Rome are just two.

During medieval times feudal lords lived in these strategically located fortresses high on the crests of hills or overlooking roads and waterways, ready to defend the territory granted them by the popes. In those days the rocca or caste was little more than a military outpost with few comforts but offering such security in time of invasion that a few houses soon gathered at the castle doorstep for protection and slowly gave birth to the hilltop towns that now dot the countryside.

With the invention of gun powder and powerful firearms the earliest castle-fortresses lost most of their strategic importance. Hence, newly built castles no longer included outdated square towers which were substituted with round ones that could better withstand the onslaught of cannonballs. Battlements were removed in many cases and often the lord of the castle transformed the building into a more comfortable palace meant for year round or summer living.

As the Renaissance dawned, artists were called in to fresco the main rooms while tapestries warmed the walls of the family’s private living quarters. Where once kitchen gardens grew, ornate Italian gardens contributed to make the foreboding military rocca into a pleasure palace.

Many grandiose castles are still owned by the Roman baronial families that built and defended them for centuries; others are in the hands of the Italian state or of private persons and several of these are open to visitors who wish to take a plunge back into history.

Besides the ones described here, castles can be seen wherever an important point of contact, communication or transport existed. Along the Mediterranean one sees a series of fortified tower-castles strung along the coastline from Civitavecchia in the north to Santa Marinella, Santa Severa, Palo, Ostia, Nettuno, Torre Astura, and San Felice Circeo and all the way to Terracina and Gaeta at the southern border of the region. Other castles protected the courses of rivers such as that at Lunghezza and the castle at Nazzano, perched high above the Tiber. The castles at Bolsena and Bracciano in northern Lazio still dominate these beautiful lakes. Some were built to protect bridges (Castello dell’Abbadia) and at Isola del Liri, a small town in southern Lazio, a castle was even built over a waterfall, a most unusual spectacle, moreover, because both are right in the center of the town.

Bracciano

The castle’s imposing silhouette can be seen from quite a distance as its huge structure and perfectly conserved towers dominate the lake and the town of Bracciano. It was constructed by Napoleone Orsini, the most powerful baron of the time and by his son, Virginio, during the last decades of the 15^th century.

Napoleone Orsini, a famous soldier, probably helped design the military structure while to Virginio we owe the refined cross-barred windows, covered loggia and a general softening of the strictly military aspects of the building, resulting in a masterpiece of late Renaissance architecture.

When completed the castle was an excellent showplace for this powerful family that over the centuries produced 18 saints, 5 popes, 40 cardinals, 20 electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, 7 Roman senators, 4 prefects and 6 Gonfaloniere of Rome as well as numerous Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta and the Templar Knights.

Twelve kings’ daughters entered the Orsini family over the years as brides while eleven Orsini girls left their homes to become queens.

The historical building is kept in a perfect state of conservation by the family of Prince Livio Odescalchi who took it over in 1696. The furniture dating from 1450 to 1650 is an antiques collector’s dream. It is not original to the castle for the rich Torlonia bankers sold all the furnishings to Cardinal de Falloux when they were leasing the castle in the first half of the 19^th century.

Visitors today admire the furniture, the trophy room and the armory which were set up by Prince Baldassare Odescalchi at the beginning of this century. Younger visitors enjoy a walk along the crenellated walls, the gigantic kitchens and the stories of secret passages and mysterious murders that took place there long ago.

There are frescoes by Antonazzo Romano showing two important moments in the life of Virginio Orsini: his nomination as Captain of the Aragonese troops in 1498 and his encounter with Piero de’ Medici in 1487. Other fresco cycles, that of the female figures and one showing the labours of Hercules have been cleaned, studied and positively dated as works from the 1400’s.

Arsoli

Another superb princely home which can be visited by appointment is the castle of the Massimo princes (said to be Rome’s oldest continuing family) that dominates the medieval town of Arsoli. The Massimo family resides at the castle during part of the summer but when not in residence allows visitors to walk in their footsteps and enjoy the delights of their ancestral home, which is completely furnished with works of art and antique furniture. Originally an Orsini castle, it dates from the 11^th century with later additions and is a perfect example of a medieval rocca which was transformed during the Renaissance into a baronial palace.

The early Gothic chapel with Cosmatesque decorations, a fully outfitted armory, frescoes by Federico Zuccari and the elegant Italian garden and Castle Park are some of the highlights of a visit to Arsoli which is 60 kms. south of Rome. Because of the castle’s location on the peak of a steep hill there are only two exact points from which it can be seen in its entirety. One of these is beyond the town where the castle can be admired inserted among the cypress, oak and olive groves; the other is from the outer garden which was added later just for this purpose.

Ostia Antica

Famous for the interesting archeological excavations of the ancient port of Rome, Ostia Antica, is visited by many people for its ruins, amphiteatre and mosaics. Only a few rare visitors note the triangular fortress entrenched within its moat along with a fortified village. This is the Rocca designed by Florentine architect Baccio Pontelli in 1483-6 for Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who later became Pope Julius II. A visit to the Rocca of Ostia Antica gives one a perfect idea of the Italian Renaissance for there are the military necessities which made the Rocca a strategic link in the chain protecting Rome and the Tiber but there are also the civilized niceties of a circular Arabian-style sauna bath all in stone, the well furnished main rooms and the frescoed walls by Peruzzi.

Pope Julius often led groups of courtiers and friends on picnic trips by boat down the Tiber to his seaside castle with musicians and poets on board to enliven the half-day voyage. Now Ostia Antica can be reached in15 minutes with the metro train from Ostiense station or along the Via del Mare from EUR .

Next to the Rocca is the Renaissance church of Sant’Aurea and the Bishop’s palace next to the church and castle is a hidden treasure rediscovered after more than 300 years of oblivion.

Several years ago the parish priest, Padre Sangiorgi noticed that on a wall of the great hall where pieces of plaster had fallen, bits of ancient frescoed figures were beginning to appear. It turned out to be battle scenes commissioned to Baldassare Pereuzzi and his helpers more than 500 years ago by Cardinal Riario showing the Emperor Trajan fighting against the Dacians. Painted in monochrome style, the battle scenes contrast with the polychrome of the surrounding friezes. Their remarkable state of conservation makes them as brilliant as when they were covered, probably as a precaution after a plague epidemic, with strata of whitewash more than 300 years ago.

Civita Castellana

The name of this town, Civita Castellana, tells us everything: a city and a castle. It was once the Etruscan center of Falerii Veteres so the present use of the castle-fortress as an Etruscan museum is quite fitting. Built by Sangallo for Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI 1494-1503)) and for his son Duke Valentino, the castle has a roughly pentagonal shape and several towers of various design, all surrounded by a moat similar to that of Castle Sant’Angelo. The popes used it during the 19^th century as a political prison and during the last war it was a residence for the homeless. After a complete restoration begun in 1952 it has returned to its former glory with austere halls, dramatic stairways and central courtyard making a perfect setting for the handsome new Etruscan museum which is an incentive for visiting this lively town on the fringes of the regular tourist routes…and well known for tableware and ceramics.

Other special castles to visit in Lazio include:

Sermoneta, the Caetani family castle
Ninfa, walled city and Frangipane castle, gardens
Cerveteri, Odescalchi-Ruspoli castle and Etruscan museum
Caprarola, Palazzo Farnese ,the pentagon palace with frescoes and pleasure gardens
Vignanello, Ruspoli family castle and Renaissance gardens