Castel Molara (ruderi)

Castel Molara preserves the remains of an Annibaldi stronghold in the woods below Tuscolo. The ruins include curtain walls, tower bases, the apse of a castle church, a palace and the remains of a keep.

Why it matters

Built above a Roman road station, Castel Molara became an Annibaldi fortress in the Alban Hills. It formed part of a defensive line facing the Counts of Tuscolo's stronghold. In 1328, the fortress fell after a three-day siege to the army of Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian, beginning its decline.

What to notice

Two curtain walls enclosed the castle, with the bases of square towers visible above the undergrowth. Within the enclosure are the remains of dwellings. The higher part of the site includes the apse of the castle church, the ruined rooms of the seigneurial palace and the keep. The name Molara is associated either with millstone quarries, pietra da mola, or with a mill serving the surrounding estates. The site occupies a wooded slope between the vineyards and the rim of the ancient volcanic crater.

Context and history

The fortress rose on the site of a Roman mansio, or road station, whose structures were reused in the medieval building. Local histories trace the castle to the Counts of Tuscolo in the tenth century and its passage to the Annibaldi in 1090, as part of a marriage settlement that also included Rocca Priora and Monte Porzio. The fortress served as an Annibaldi stronghold until the family's fortunes declined in the fourteenth century. Chroniclers record stays by Pope Innocent IV and Thomas Aquinas. Ludwig the Bavarian took the castle in 1328 after a three-day siege. By the mid-fifteenth century, Pope Pius II described it as deserted; documents list it as a ruin in 1504. In the eighteenth century, poor labourers sheltered in the ruins and quarry caves. Woodland later spread over the remains.