Carafa (noble family)

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Family coat of arms

The Carafa are a Neapolitan aristocracy sex and among the most important Italian noble families of the early modern period. They provided a pope and 17 cardinals.

history

The family is a younger branch of the Caracciolo family from Naples , the progenitor of the Carafa was Gregorio, a younger son of Giovanni Caracciolo Rosso († after 1167), Conte di Montemarano, patrician of Naples, judge and connoisseur, who in turn was a son of Riccardo " Rosso "Caracciolo († after 1140).

According to another theory, the Carafa originally descended from the very old Pisan patrician family Sismondi, who had the same family coat of arms .

The Carafa family rose to become one of the leading noble families in the Kingdom of Naples in the 13th and 14th centuries . With Filippo Carafa 1378 first acquired from 17 Carafa the cardinal hat ; thus the family gained a foothold in Rome and there began to expand their influence in Italy. Oliviero Carafa claimed that the family was related to Thomas Aquinas , which was manifested in a fresco by Filippino Lippi in the Carafa chapel of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva , which was Oliviero's tomb. As a typical curial cardinal of the Renaissance, he used his position to patronize various family members and to share in the economic income of monasteries, for example.

Pope Paul IV , Gian Pietro Carafa (1476–1559)

Oliviero's nephew Gian Pietro Carafa ascended the chair of Peter in 1555 as Pope Paul IV . Through the alliance with France and the subsequent war against Spain , which should provide the family with their own territory, but ended with the occupation of the Papal State by the Duke of Alba and the peace of Cave-Palestrina . Paul IV strengthened the Inquisition , which he had headed even before his pontificate, and made it the dreaded control authority against everyone. After his death in 1559, the city of Rome sentenced him to death in a posthumous trial, a statue of him was beheaded 'vicariously' and thrown into the Tiber . Two of his nephews , Carlo (1519–1561) and Giovanni († 1561), who were involved in the military endeavors of their uncle and ruthlessly profited from the position of their papal uncle, were sentenced to death in 1561. Giovanni, whom his uncle had made Duke of Paliano , had his pregnant wife murdered ten days after the death of Paul IV on August 28, 1559, with the approval of his brother, Cardinal Secretary of State Carlo Carafa. Thereupon both brothers were tried under the new Pope Pius IV . The cardinal state secretary was strangled in Castel Sant'Angelo and the duke beheaded. Her accomplices were also executed. This was linked to the withdrawal of various property titles from the family - their position in Italy was ruined.

A few years later the Carafa were rehabilitated and given back some of their possessions. However, they no longer achieved a comparable influence in the political life of Italy, although they continued to belong to the high nobility of the Kingdom of Naples , where they owned over 300 fiefs in the course of history. Numerous members of the Carafa were Archbishops of Naples, from the other descendants the Field Marshal Antonio Carafa (1642-1691), who fought for Habsburg against Turks and Hungarian insurgents, and the composer and Rossini- contemporary Michele Carafa stand  out.

The family divided into the branches Carafa della Spina (with a thorn branch, ital. Spina , above the family coat of arms). These acquired the titles of imperial prince , prince of Roccella , duke of Bruzzano , Marchese di Castelvetere (in Val Fortore), count of Policastro, Grotteria etc. The other branch, the Carafa della Stadera (with a beam, ital. Stadera , in the coat of arms ) acquired the city of Andria and Castel del Monte in 1522 and were raised by the Spanish king in 1552 to dukes of Andria and dukes of Castel del Monte, lords, later princes of Stigliano (1289–1556), princes of Belvedere, and in 1465 dukes of Maddaloni , to Counts of Ruvo di Puglia , Montorio , Santa Severina , Cerreto and Airola , Marchesi di Corato , Marchesi di Montenero, Dukes of Noja (1592–1806), Dukes of Nocera (1521–1660) etc. The family became grandees Appointed in Spain.

The current head of the family is Don Gregorio Carafa-Cantelmo-Stuart, Principe del Sacro Romano Impero, 15th Principe di Roccella, Marchese di Castelvetere (* 1945).

coat of arms

The family's coat of arms shows three silver crossbars in red, it was later shown with additions such as the green inclined thorn bar or the balance bar (under the crossbar).

  • Coat of arms of the Carafa della Spina

  • Coat of arms of the Carafa della Stadera

  • Pope coat of arms of Paul IV.

family members

Carafa Chapel in Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Rome) , built around 1493 for Cardinal Oliviero Carafa with frescoes by Filippino Lippi
Castel del Monte , family-owned from 1522 to 1876

Palaces of the Carafa

  • Palazzo Ducale in Andria

  • Palazzo Carafa d'Andria, Naples

  • Portal of the Palazzo Carafa della Spina, Naples

  • Palazzo Carafa di Maddaloni, Naples

  • Palazzo Carafa di Santa Severina, Naples

  • Palazzo Diomede Carafa, Naples

  • Villa Carafa di Belvedere, Naples

  • Palazzo Carafa di Nocera, Naples

  • Castle in Santa Severina

literature

  • Volker Reinhardt : Carafa. In: Volker Reinhardt (ed.): The great families of Italy (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 485). Kröner, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-520-48501-X .
  • Benedetto Minichini, Del cognome e dello scudo dei Carafa, Nobili Napoletani , Napoli, Stabilimento tipografico del Cav. Gaetano Nobile, 1860
  • Berardo Candida-Gonzaga, Memorie delle famiglie nobili delle province meridionali d'Italia , G. de Angelis, 1883
  • Tullio Torriani, Una tragedia nel cinquecento romano: Paolo IV ei suoi nepoti , Roma, Fratelli Palombi, 1951

Web links

Commons : House of Carafa  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ JCL Simonde v. Sismondi: History of the Italian Free States: Their Origin, Progress and Fall , Augsburg 1840, p. 222.
  2. ↑ JCL Simonde Sismondi: History of the Italian Free States in the Middle Ages , Volume 5, Zurich 1810, p. 235.
  3. ↑ Biographie universelle , Volume 7, Paris 1813, p. 105 ; Johann Samuel Publication : Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste , Volume 15, Leipzig 1826, S. 162.