Venafro

For its transit position on the way leading towards the hinterland of the Samnium, Venafro has always been a link also to defend the high Valley of the Volturno. In the Roman age, on the North-East of the urban area, the castle appeared like a fortification-fence around the 19th century. In this period Venafro was one of the Lombard territories of the duchy of Benevento, so a centre where one of the duke territorial representatives operated. During the centuries intervention phases alternated with standstill periods, as happened during the occupation when Venafro was deprived of the utilization of the fortification undergoing the whole destruction of the site. There is a description of the castle-fortification in the Memorie Historiche del Sannio del Ciarlanti, where an historician of the 17th century describes: it’s a noble and very strong castle, really worthy house of noble lords that have dominated it. The annexes, ordered successively, don’t allow a clear reading of the monument stratifications. At the present time it is articulated around a rectangular yard, from which in the past people entered in the service environments like warehouses, cisterns, ovens, kitchens and in the upper floors through a staircase. The transformations of the structure during the Aragonese period are very clear, identifiable in the low rounds paths on the counterslope of the cylindrical towers and the curtains placed on the south-eastern side, according to the example by the coeval Castelnuovo of Naples. The rich and precious fresco decoration is quite relevant. It winds on all the noble floor and the principal motif consists of a theory of life-sized horses realized for will of Enrico Pandone that lived in the castle with his family during the first half of the 16th century. The episode representing the Pandone castle stays apart; we haven’t neither news about other cinquecento cycles of religious subject, or decorative ventures in the inhabited palaces of the small local nobility in the 16th century. At the present time the Superintendency  is completing the restoration works of the whole structure, even if some halls are opened to the public.

THE OPEN GALLERY
The open gallery places upon the turreted structure at the western corner, highlighting the total indifference towards defence issues. You can enter in it through an external air staircase. Its peculiar position, highlights the landscape research where the aesthetical pleasure on the surrounding territory prevails, due above all to the coloured effect of the sunset. The openings are exalted through the sequence of four twin arches opened towards South and West, supported by pillars whose strongly hollow-mirror moulding cornices remind some style exemplars that you can find on a Bramante’s portal of Santa Maria della Pace’s cloister in Rome.

THE HORSES
Enrico Pandone owned a stud with about three hundred horses of different breeds selling o giving them to famous personages of the Southern Italy of that period. From this passion, a unique decorative cycle was born, transforming the noble floor rooms of the castle into a kind of photo album, with a series of horses images, selected among the Count Enrico’s favourite ones. Unknown artists come between 1521 and 1527 to paint, room by room, the most beautiful life-sized exemplars of the stud, with an almost unique technique in the art history: on a fast preparatory drawing, the horses profiles are moulded in low relief and then frescoed. Each one is characterised by its own saddle and refined completions, marked by Enrico’s brand – a rhomb inscribed in a square and surmounted by a cross with the H letter in the centre – and accompanied with a bit painted with wealth of detail. Each horse is identified by precise notes about its breed, age and name. From all the horses stands out the imposing exemplar called San Giorgio, sent by Enrico to the Emperor Charles V on the October 1522.