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Piccolomini Castle - Torlonia Collection and Museum of Sacred Art of the Marsica

The Piccolomini Castle is a castle, located in the historic center of Celano (L'Aquila), which dominates the plain below the Fucino.

The castle was founded between the end of the fourteenth century by the Berardi family, owner of the county of Celano and subsequently completed in the mid-Qutrocento by the Piccolomini family that succeeded it.

The site on which the castle stands is to be defined with the place, on the hill of San Flaviano, where Frederick II of Swabia, in struggle with Tommaso Conte di Celano and Molise, had fortifications built during the siege of 1223.

These fortifications were almost only works in wood and beaten earth, however they marked the beginning of what would have been a solid fortification in the following centuries, in a dominant position on Lake Fucino and in visual alignment with other military structures present in the area such as the towers of Aielli and Collarmele.

In 1893 it was recognized as an Italian national monument.

During the severe earthquake of 1915 that struck the Marsica, the castle was severely damaged, causing the collapse of the loggia in the courtyard, some vaults, all the attics, the patrol path and all the loggias.

Serious lesions were also formed on the corner towers, one of which, the south-east one, collapsed, halving its height.

The restoration work began 25 years after the earthquake, in 1940, following the expropriation by the State in 1938, but were immediately interrupted due to war (Second World War) and completed in 1960, applying the new anti-earthquake legislation in force at era.

It currently houses the Museum of Sacred Art of the Marsica; since December 2014, the Ministry of Culture has managed it through the Abruzzo Museum Complex, which in December 2019 became the Regional Directorate of Museums.

It is a national museum distributed in nine rooms of the castle and in the courtyard the remains of frescoes from the fifteenth century are visible, while in the rooms on the ground floor they house the archaeological section and the diocesan museum which was set up in collaboration with the diocese of Marsi.

 

Map: Piccolomini Castle - Torlonia Collection and Museum of Sacred Art of the Marsica