Campello Alto

The hilltop castle of Campello Alto keeps an elliptical ring of walls, roughly five hundred metres around, developed around a medieval stronghold. A gate, a Romanesque parish church inside the walls and a convent below preserve several layers of its history.

Why it matters

Tradition connects the castle’s foundation with Rovero di Champeaux, a nobleman of Burgundian origin. His descendants took the name Campello and ruled the surrounding valley for centuries, from the Rocca della Spina to the tower of Lanfranco. When the Counts of Campello finally left feudal power behind, the castle kept their name, their church and their silhouette above the Clitunno springs.

What to notice

The walls follow the hill’s ellipse, once crowned with Guelph merlons and fronted by deep moats, with cannon ports and stone corbels still visible along the masonry. Houses lean against the inside of the curtain walls, and a single gate controls entry. The central square, facing the old public palace, holds the church of San Donato: medieval fabric survives in the facade and left side wall, while the bright interior reflects a nineteenth-century remodelling. The municipality's portal dates the church to around the twelfth century and credits it as an early example of the Spoletan Romanesque, with fifteenth-century frescoes inside. From the walls, the view runs across olive groves to the plain of Spoleto.

Context and history

Castle life here was rarely quiet. In 1226 Tancredi I Campello sided with Frederick II against the papacy and seized the envoys of Pope Honorius III, who responded by condemning the castle's people as children of the devil. An earthquake damaged the borgo around 1300, and in 1341 Pietro Pianciani, acting for the King of Naples, attacked the castle and damaged its houses; the castle was rebuilt by Paolo di Campello, and Cardinal Albornoz later strengthened its defences. Violence flared again in the fifteenth century, and in 1749 brigands sacked the castle and the neighbouring monastery before being driven off. Secular life softened the picture: a municipal statute of 1569, ratified the following year, regulated everything from festivals to harvesting, and Campello Alto remained the comune's seat until the town hall moved down to La Bianca in 1887.