Castles in the Air

On the way!

I have been intrigued by the castles at Fiore since Bob and I ran across them over a year ago, and I have been itching to see them from the inside! I did get the chance to see inside Belforte when Tricia came, but the largest one -- the one under construction -- hasn't been an option.

Until.

Castle in the distance

Until Michael mentioned that he knew the guy working on the castle. Are you kidding me? And you just told me NOW? Well, yes. And he couldn't remember the fellow's name. And had no way of reaching him.

No.way.

But then we saw him in town, and luckily my quick-thinking husband told me who he was in the context of castles. I gushed at him. I fawned on him. I practically pawed him lasciviously. And he came through with an invitation to come visit the jobsite any time! (Possibly in an attempt to stem the pawing, but hey.)

So, today was the day. Florence went with me, so she can verify my claim of its absolute coolness factor.

My new best friend (now that I no longer had to bat my eyelashes at him) spent two hours taking us around. It turns out that the castle was first started in the 1200s, and consisted of approximately 1/4 of what is currently there. It served as the stronghold for the Atti family, a Ghibelline supporter (anti-pope of the time), hence the straight crenellations on the towers. V-shaped crenellations, on the other hand, indicate papal sympathizers.

But that's just one of the things I learned.

Original paving will remain

Boiling oil? Complete myth. Turns out, as you might expect, oils back in the day were very expensive. Those soldiers attacking the castle were much more likely to have been inundated with boiling water. Similar effect, much lower cost. And to add injury to injury, they would have been pelted with rocks. In a pinch, an interior wall could even be dismantled now and again to provide extra armaments. And arrows? Yes, okay, they were used from the towers. But arrows are expensive. Rocks and water came first, supposedly. Arrows were more likely to go up (from the attackers) than down (from the defenders).

"New" 19th-century staircase
will be redone

Anyway, at some point during the 1400s or early 1500s there was a wee spot of trouble with the plague. The castle was abandoned in favor of the secondary castle down the road (now Belforte), and burned in an effort at disinfection.

By the mid-1500s, though, Belforte seemed a bit cramped, and it was time to rebuild the main house. So, architects duly consulted, they rebuilt the castle, using some of the remaining outside wall (which shows signs of the fire...crumbling stones). Of course, as with any renovation, an expansion was required, and the castle was greatly enlarged from its previous floor plan.

Unusual view of San Fortunato and Consolazione together

The castle, contrary to what I expected, did not have an inner courtyard. Instead, it was designed more like a city, with two orthogonal roads through the center. Interesting! On the one side lived the quality. The rest were housed in the other side.

The castle was completely self-sufficient and was able to withstand a siege for a year. They had a granary, three interior wells, two exterior wells, an oven, stables, hanging rooms (for drying goods), and of course a cantina for producing wine.

The area around would have been stripped bare on a radius of about 100 meters. The biggest threat to the castle was fire: a sustained fire of any sort would damage the stone to the crumbling point.

Which brings us to today's castle.

There's been a big fuss about the rework, because much of the castle was in really sad shape when it started, so there has been a large amount of reconstruction required. "Purists" thought that this shouldn't happen, and that the castle should be left alone (presumably to decay and fall to bits entirely). However, the municipalities permitted the work, and the owner (someone from Bologna who reputedly already owns several castles) has required that all work be done by hand. Lending itself to a significantly longer renovation time, but the craftsmen can really put the care into the work that the owner desires.

And, yes, this will be a single-family dwelling when finished.

 Love,

Alexandra

Oven, unknown age

Drying room for herbs, meats, etc.

Originally chapel, later cantina

These casks were built in-place.

Relatively modern wine press

Florence's find

Storeroom

Possible location for the new chapel

These are new, for firearms

Rotten view

One of the few frescoes left, 19th-century

Hand-hewn 19th-century fireplace (unimportant)

View from the turret

View of interior roofs

On the way home