Pietrastornina, Italy
Pietrastornina is a town and comune in the province of Avelino, Campania, Italy. Pietrastornina is also the area where our Italian heritage begins.
Looming from the top of a rocky mountain is a Lombard castle where Renato D'Angiò found refuge. It was a fiefdom of many noble families like the Filangieri, the Stendardo, the De Balzo, the Leonessa and the Carafa of Maddaloni. Donato Massa, a famous pottery artist, was born here in the 17th century; an annual national contest of ceramists is held every August in his honor.
One of the most interesting bits of history and, indeed, geology, centers on the above-mentioned town of Pietrastornina. It is dominated by the Guglia Rocciosa ("rocky spire"—photo, right) a "calcareous olistolith", that is, a limestone chunk broken off from a larger mass. The spire rises slightly more than 70 meters above the historically inhabited town. This rocky outcropping appears as a solid body split on the north side by a deep fracture producing another two smaller rocky spires lower down. The main body (which the inhabitants of Pietrastornina call "the castle") has a volume of about 500,000 cubic meters. The geological origin of the rocky spire of Pietrastornina goes back to tectonic movements beginning in the middle Pliocene when rising of the Appenine chain caused erratic slides of large rocky masses.
The main height and the two secondary outcroppings were ideal for a military installation from which to watch goings-on in the Caudine Valley and gave the Rocky Spire the ability to guard the Montevergine monastery, the Benevento convent and, eventually, the town of Benevento, itself. The beginning of that military chapter in the history of the "castle" begins in 774 after the founding of the Santa Sofia convent in Benevento when both the rock/fort and the settlement that grew up around the base of the fortification were given to the Benevento convent by Longobard prince, Arechis II.
The fortifications on the spire, itself, of which only very few ruins remain today, actually consisted of various structures of various sizes and shapes placed at different levels around the entire spire. Every nook and cranny of the rocky structure was used for something. One side presents a stairway, a very steep, but accessible, route to the top; for centuries, it was the path that communicated directly with the inhabited settlement below. At the top of the spire were an octagonal watch and signal tower. Farther down were spaces to garrison troops.
Interestingly, with the coming of the Kingdom of Sicily, things did not change a lot for "the castle". Frederick II in 1239 reorganized the castles and fortresses in his domain and left the job of the Rocky Spire pretty much what it had been under the Longobards, but he did insert the Castle into a chain of other defensive forts that he built in the area. Taken together, the chain served to watch over the Caudine Valley (also well-known in Roman military history).
From the "national" defensive strategies of Frederick II, there is now an abrupt step backwards—that is, if you view nation states as a step forward in human history! (I think I do, but sometimes I'm not so sure)—with the coming of the Angevins and the return of smaller Longobard-type holdings, now called fiefdoms. Feudalism is in; the Rocky Spire fortress disappears from further documentation, becoming part of the large Della Leonessa fief that extended all the way from the town of Montesárchio, and south across the Caudine Valley through the hills of the Partenio to Summonte and the property of the Monte Vergine monastery.
The rock "castle" languished for centuries. In 1837 the remaining fortifications were removed since they were potential hazards to the growing settlement below. In 2004 the Rocky Spire of Pietrastornina was expropriated by the Italian state and is now overseen by the Campania Regional Superintendency of Culture. Visitors may see the site by appointment. Be prepared to climb a lot of steps.
Looming from the top of a rocky mountain is a Lombard castle where Renato D'Angiò found refuge. It was a fiefdom of many noble families like the Filangieri, the Stendardo, the De Balzo, the Leonessa and the Carafa of Maddaloni. Donato Massa, a famous pottery artist, was born here in the 17th century; an annual national contest of ceramists is held every August in his honor.
One of the most interesting bits of history and, indeed, geology, centers on the above-mentioned town of Pietrastornina. It is dominated by the Guglia Rocciosa ("rocky spire"—photo, right) a "calcareous olistolith", that is, a limestone chunk broken off from a larger mass. The spire rises slightly more than 70 meters above the historically inhabited town. This rocky outcropping appears as a solid body split on the north side by a deep fracture producing another two smaller rocky spires lower down. The main body (which the inhabitants of Pietrastornina call "the castle") has a volume of about 500,000 cubic meters. The geological origin of the rocky spire of Pietrastornina goes back to tectonic movements beginning in the middle Pliocene when rising of the Appenine chain caused erratic slides of large rocky masses.
The main height and the two secondary outcroppings were ideal for a military installation from which to watch goings-on in the Caudine Valley and gave the Rocky Spire the ability to guard the Montevergine monastery, the Benevento convent and, eventually, the town of Benevento, itself. The beginning of that military chapter in the history of the "castle" begins in 774 after the founding of the Santa Sofia convent in Benevento when both the rock/fort and the settlement that grew up around the base of the fortification were given to the Benevento convent by Longobard prince, Arechis II.
The fortifications on the spire, itself, of which only very few ruins remain today, actually consisted of various structures of various sizes and shapes placed at different levels around the entire spire. Every nook and cranny of the rocky structure was used for something. One side presents a stairway, a very steep, but accessible, route to the top; for centuries, it was the path that communicated directly with the inhabited settlement below. At the top of the spire were an octagonal watch and signal tower. Farther down were spaces to garrison troops.
Interestingly, with the coming of the Kingdom of Sicily, things did not change a lot for "the castle". Frederick II in 1239 reorganized the castles and fortresses in his domain and left the job of the Rocky Spire pretty much what it had been under the Longobards, but he did insert the Castle into a chain of other defensive forts that he built in the area. Taken together, the chain served to watch over the Caudine Valley (also well-known in Roman military history).
From the "national" defensive strategies of Frederick II, there is now an abrupt step backwards—that is, if you view nation states as a step forward in human history! (I think I do, but sometimes I'm not so sure)—with the coming of the Angevins and the return of smaller Longobard-type holdings, now called fiefdoms. Feudalism is in; the Rocky Spire fortress disappears from further documentation, becoming part of the large Della Leonessa fief that extended all the way from the town of Montesárchio, and south across the Caudine Valley through the hills of the Partenio to Summonte and the property of the Monte Vergine monastery.
The rock "castle" languished for centuries. In 1837 the remaining fortifications were removed since they were potential hazards to the growing settlement below. In 2004 the Rocky Spire of Pietrastornina was expropriated by the Italian state and is now overseen by the Campania Regional Superintendency of Culture. Visitors may see the site by appointment. Be prepared to climb a lot of steps.