Cerro al Volturno

The castle of Cerro al Volturno stands in a naturally fortified place close to a rocky spur. The fortalice is reachable through a step-path where you can pass walking and starts from the suburb known as Santa Maria Assunta. The castle was probably built at the end of the 10th century, when the Lombard princes allowed San Vincenzo’s abbot to built a fortification in order to defend the Volturno’s high valley territory. The last studies have identified an original core of the Lombard epoch, built in a quadrangular fence, perhaps used as fortified store. The coming of fire-arms made indispensable the adaptation of the castle to new defence necessities. The consolidation of the strong boundary wall and the three cylindrical towers on slope basis situated at north, west and south of the building, made the building safer. These changes were carried out during the 15th century, when the Pandone’s were owners of the feud, the first one was Scipio since 1465. In 1623 Lucrezia Tumacella, countess of Cerro, made strengthen the towers with powerful walls as bastions. The plaque immured on the façade of the castle is quite pertinent to the works carried out during the 17th century. Still on the façade is immured the Colonna’s armorial bearings. Recently the castle has been further transformed and restored in a conservative way by the Lombardi’s which are the present owners.