Castello di Montesarchio

Very characteristic and well kept castle. Admission is subject to a fee (a few euros) but it is also possible to visit the museum. I staff are very knowledgeable and professional. Breathtaking landscape and perfect place to take a dip in the past.

The museum is very nice. It is a pity that the tower cannot be visited because it is closed from January to March

The Tower .... breathtaking panorama and unique view over the caudina valley .... The medieval fortification reachable in just over half an hour from the town center, with a healthy and regenerating urban tracking, through winding streets and stone stairs that wind between houses and local residences perched on the hill, once a Bourbon prison, today it is the seat of the archaeological museum of Sannio Caudino. It is extraordinary to be able to return, even just for a daily break, for a morning awakening, or on summer evenings to benefit from the coolness of a breeze while enjoying an equally unique sunset over the valley below.

MONTESARCHIO CASTLE, it is one of the best examples of military architecture in Campania in the province of Benevento, built with the limestone piety of Mount Taburno. The appearance of the tower dates back mainly to the project of Francesco di Giorgio Martini, a Sienese artist who in 1495 inspected various castles of the Kingdom, from Naples to Puglia. The tower was adapted to the new siege techniques, increasingly influenced by the use of cannons, which made the high and thin walls and corners of the buildings unsuitable. For this reason they began to build more and more with a circular shape and with lower and thicker walls. Further changes were made in the nineteenth century, when the tower was used as a political prison. Carlo Poerio (politician and opponent of the Bourbon King) was imprisoned in one of the cells, which can now be visited. It is difficult to say what existed before this project at the end of the 15th century. Visiting the tower you can already notice with the naked eye the difference in the construction technique between the central cylinder, taller and narrower, and the outer cylinder, low and wide. The internal cylinder was made in a more rough way, with less worked stones and with the addition of bricks, which does not exclude even the hypothesis of a Lombard origin (after the year 938, for sure) for this part of the structure. In fact, this year the Princes of Benevento (Landolfo I, Atenolfo II and Atenolfo III) granted Caudi (Montesarchio) to the steward "Teoderico called Mirando", and with it the right to fortify the AREA. So both the castle and the tower cannot be older than 938.