Roccamandolfi

The first news about the existence of the castle date back to 1195 and refer to the besiege by the troops of the Emperor Henry VI to the Count of Molise Ruggero. Despite these events, later on the castle went back to the Ruggero’s. In 1223 was destroyed for will of Frederick II of Swabia forcing Giuditta, Ruggero’s daughter, to surrender. Then the castle became shelter of heretics and for this reason was razed to the ground definitively by order of Charles of Angiò in 1270. The ancient castle structure follows the morphological characteristics of the site. It was built in some points exploiting the surfacing rock of the mountain overlooking the village, and in other earth amounts that have defined the perimeter. The present curtain is bounded by low walls in squared ashlars, five towers that occupies some sides of the fortified settlement and the entrance in the castle is allowed through a flight on the eastern side supported by lateral walls. It leads to a rectangular environment presenting at one of its corners a lookout tower. Judging by the presence of other wall curtains, the castle should have owned various other environments in the past. The part preserved in the best way is the one on the southern side, where you can see a kind of wall with a big amount of cementitious mortar utilized to get round the reduced dimensions of the stone ashlars. The study lead by Professor L. Marino allowed to highlight some problems linked to its preservation. In some points, the castle can be considered as a ruin. During the years it underwent a slow but gradual erosion that has changed its aspect irremediably. At the present time the Commune of Roccamandolfi, owner of the castle, is carrying out a series of interventions aimed to the complete restoration of the monument in order to be usable in the future, including archaeological surveys that are a pilot intervention in this ambit in the territory of the Molise.