Castello Angioino

The castle of Civitacampomarano rises on a sandstone spur above the Biferno valley. Rebuilt in the fifteenth century around an older fortified core, it preserves a sculpted Catalan-Aragonese portal, traces of a drawbridge and a collection of contemporary art established in 2023.

Why it matters

The castle’s position between the Mordale and Vallone Grande streams shaped the development of the village around it. Its medieval and Renaissance fabric includes defensive structures and a residential wing, while its later role in local history continued through the upheavals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

What to notice

The eastern entrance is marked by a Catalan-Aragonese portal with carved coats of arms. Rectangular sockets above the arch once held the chains of the drawbridge. The castle retains two cylindrical towers, a six-arched loggia and a courtyard fountain decorated with animal forms. A well connects to a large cistern beneath the courtyard. Since 2023, the rooms have also housed contemporary paintings and works on paper.

Context and history

The first fortification, probably dating to the twelfth century, consisted of a tower within a trapezoidal wall circuit. The present quadrangular enclosure and round towers took shape in a fifteenth-century rebuilding associated with the Aragonese period. Paolo di Sangro received Civitacampomarano in fief in 1443, and the castle later hosted the marriage contract of Cola Monforte and Altabella Di Sangro. In 1795, residents filled in the moat separating the village’s two boroughs and made a road along the castle’s northern side. Two towers collapsed after the 1805 earthquake, and a ceremonial stair was destroyed by bombing in 1943. The castle was declared a national monument in 1979 and later restored for public use.