Castello Piccolomini (Celano)
| Castello Piccolomini | ||
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 Castello Piccolomini in Celano |
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| Creation time : | 1392-1451 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | well preserved | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Celano | |
| Geographical location | 42 ° 5 '4.7 " N , 13 ° 32' 42.9" E | |
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The Castello Piccolomini is a well-preserved castle in the historic center of Celano in the province of L'Aquila , which dominates the Fucin Plain below and is managed by the Ministry of Cultural Assets and Activities ; it belongs to the Polo Museale dell'Abruzzo ; it houses the Museo d'arte sacra della Marsica (German: Museum of Sacred Art of Marsica).
history
The place where the castle towers today can be identified as the place on the Colle San Flaviano , where Frederick II had fortifications built in battle with Thomas, Count of Celano and Molise , during the occupation of 1223. These fortifications almost certainly consisted only of wood and earthworks ; in any case, they manifest the beginning of what was to become a solid fortress in a dominant position over Lake Fucin in the following centuries .
The construction of the actual castle began in 1392 on behalf of Pietro Berardi, Count of Celano , but even before that, between 1356 and 1380, his grandfather and father had planned to fortify the Colle San Flavino by building a system of walls erected with rectangular towers "with a shield" and had a keep with a square floor plan built on the summit. Pietro di Celano therefore only built the first floor with square corner towers up to the cornice , integrating the keep on the northeast corner . He also built the inner courtyard between the walls by equipping it with loggias with pointed arches that can still be seen today.
In 1451 Lionello Accrocciamuro , who would later become Count of Celano (after his marriage to Jocavella da Celano ), continued the work of his predecessor by building both the outer wall ring with two large, semicircular corner towers on the northeast side and a triangular opening with a large, integrated cylindrical corner tower towards the citadel, as well as the piano nobile of the castle with its own battlements and four corner towers built up to today's height. Accrocciamuro also took care of the fortification of the outer ring of the wall by increasing its thickness so that it could withstand the deadly gunpowder bombs invented during those years.
In 1463 Antonio Todeschini Piccolomini, nephew of Pope Pius II , became Count of Celano through Ferdinand I of Naples . So he resumed the construction of the castle, adding architectural additions and decorations that turned the castle into a fortified palace . In particular, he had the second floor of the inner loggias completed with pointed arches, which were decorated on the capitals with heraldic symbols of the family: the cross and the crescent. In addition, he had architrave windows opened in the Renaissance style , creating several hanging loggias, supported by again visible consoles .
Structural interventions, on the other hand, were implemented on the bastions of the outer ring of walls, where he had two cylindrical towers built with steep slopes that integrated the old "horseshoe" towers and extended the walls themselves near the towers to defend the entrances by providing them of a front gate.
In 1591 Camilla Peretti , the sister of Pope Sixtus V , acquired the honor of count from the Piccolominis . In 1608, Michele Peretti had a few windows with simple architraves built into the keep. In 1647 the castle was involved in the revolt of Masaniello , occupied by the revolutionaries led by Antonio Quinzi from L'Aquila and subjected to a long siege by the royal troops.
The fief then fell to Bernardino Savelli and then to Livia Cesarini , who passed it on to the Counts Sforza Cesarini and then to the Sforza Cabrerà Bovadilla . The panels from the 18th century, which were created to support the upper loggias after the earthquakes of 1695, 1706 and 1780, date from this period. On the ground floor, some rooms were used to create the feudal prison.
In 1892 the property belonged to the Marchese Orazio Arezzo from Celano and then to the Dragonetti family from L'Aquila. In the same year the western corner became the temporary seat of the prison, while the castle was elevated to a national monument in 1893 under the protection of the Department of Fine Arts of the new Kingdom of Italy .
During the severe earthquake that struck Marsica in 1915 , the castle was badly damaged; The loggias in the inner courtyard collapsed as well as some vaults, all attics, the battlement and all loggias. Also deep cracks formed in the corner towers, one of which, the southeastern one, collapsed halfway up.
The restoration work did not begin until 25 years after the earthquake in 1940, after the expropriation by the state in 1938, but was immediately interrupted again due to the war and was not completed until 1960, whereby the then valid, new anti-earthquake standard was applied.
description
After the restoration, in which the old state was faithfully restored thanks to an immense repertoire of photos, the castle has again the appearance of a medieval fortress with a defensive function for the Celano settlement, as the south-east view testifies, which in the previous centuries as a manorial Renaissance residence had been remodeled.
The wall ring is interrupted by 11 shield towers and 5 round towers . Inside you enter the castle via a drawbridge that spans a moat through two entrances, one of which is protected by a portcullis .
The main building has a regular rectangular floor plan with four square towers at the corners with Ghibelline battlements that protect an inner courtyard with a fountain in the middle, which was once provided with an architrave for collecting rainwater. On the outside of the four towers, a battlement is also provided with battlements that allowed the guards to check each side of the wall. However, the small projection of the towers from the profile of the building, which did not allow sufficient flank shots, suggests that with Accrocciamuro the old defensive function of the fortress against the prestigious manor house has faded.
The renovation of the inner courtyard is adorned by a typical Renaissance columned hall over two floors, the lower one with pointed arches supported by wide, columnar pillars and the upper one with twice the number of round arches with smaller columns. The portico, which extends on all four sides, is unprecedented in the region and "can [according to Carlo Perogalli ] be considered one of the best Italian examples of its kind".
inside rooms
The interiors are empty, as the valuable frescoes of the vaults, which some authors from the 19th century have described, were lost in the earthquake.
While the Museo d'arte sacra della Marsica is housed in 9 halls , the others are occupied by offices of the Soprintendenza of the Abruzzo region.
Individual evidence
- ^ Giuseppe Grossi: Castello Piccolomini . Terre Marsicane. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
- ^ Museo Nazionale - Castello Piccolomini . MiBACT. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
- ↑ Elenco degli edIERTi Monumentali in Italia . Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione. 1902. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
- ^ Castello Piccolomini . Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ^ Castello Piccolomini . Archived from the original on December 28, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ↑ Il Castello . Retrieved March 12, 2020.
swell
- Giuseppe Grossi: Celano, Storia, Arte e Archeologia . Pro Loco, Celano 1998.
- Grande Dizionario Enciclopedico . UTET, Turin 1958. Volume III. Pp. 276-277.
- Ernst Kantorowicz: Federico II Imperatore . Garzanti, 1981.
Web links
- Castello Piccolomini, Celano . Cultura Italia. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- Castello Piccolomini . Comune di Celano. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- Il Castello . In: Museo della Marsica . Retrieved March 12, 2020.