Carpinone

The castle of Carpinone, raised in the 10th century perpendicularly to Carpìno river, was razed by Frederick II of Swabia in 1223, after the decisive defeat of Tommaso di Celano. Subsequently, in the 14th century it was rebuilt for will of the D’Evoli’s, in 1400 was enlarged and enriched by the leader Giacomo Caldora and after him by his son Antonio who made the castle his habitual residence. The battle of Sessano in 1442 through the Angioini’s, marked the Caldora’s decline and put the king Alfonso I of Aragon to domination. The king showed to appreciate very much the merit of the captain Antonio Caldora, being guest in the castle during the same night of the battle and he didn’t want to deprived him of his goods. In 1500 the baronial residence, as Parrella describes, often invited the participants to the several falconry tournaments. Damaged by the earthquakes of 1456 and 1805, at the present time the castle appears with an irregular-pentagon plant, dominated with an embattled façade between the two cylindrical towers overlooking the village and following the rocky ground proceeding. The feudatory families that lived in the Caldora castle were the Pandone’s, the Carafa’s, the Quadra’s, the De Regina’s, the Ceva Grimaldi’s and De Riso’s. Recently the building has been restored and modified, especially as regards the separation among the inner spaces from the private people who lived there.