Fortezza di Civitella del Tronto

The fortress above Civitella del Tronto was besieged by French forces in 1557 and by the Savoy army in 1860–61. It held out until 20 March 1861, becoming the last Bourbon stronghold in Italy to surrender.

Why it matters

Rebuilt in Renaissance form from 1564 on the orders of Philip II of Spain, the fortress extends about 500 metres along the ridge, averages 45 metres in width and covers roughly 25,000 square metres. Its strategic position lay near the boundary between the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States. Restoration work took place between 1975 and 1985.

What to notice

The fortress includes bastions named San Pietro, Sant'Andrea, San Giovanni and San Paolo, connected by covered walkways and open parade grounds. Its layout also includes cisterns, bread ovens, prisons, stables and powder stores. The Palazzo del Governatore was inaugurated in 1574; the church of San Giacomo was built from 1585 and consecrated in 1604. The Museo delle Armi e delle Mappe Antiche presents weapons and maps spanning the sixteenth century to 1861.

Context and history

A castle stood here by 1069, when it was assigned to the bishop of Ascoli, and Charles I of Anjou ordered repairs in 1269. The decisive chapter came in spring 1557, when French troops under the Duke of Guise, allied with Pope Paul IV, besieged the fortress from 24 April to 16 May without taking it. Philip II of Spain then ordered the reconstruction that gave the fortress its present shape, and rewarded the town's loyalty with the epithet of Fedelissima — "most faithful" — recorded in the Borghi Più Belli d'Italia profile under the year 1559. The Bourbons modified the works in the eighteenth century. In 1806 an Irish officer in Bourbon service, Matteo Wade, held the fortress against the French for nearly four months. The epilogue came during unification: the Savoy army besieged it from 26 October 1860, and the garrison surrendered on 20 March 1861, three days after the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed. Abandoned and quarried for stone afterwards, the fortress was restored between 1975 and 1985, and the arms museum opened inside it in 1988, dedicated since 2015 to Major Raffaele Tiscar.