Top 4 Castles around Partenio Regional Park

TO visit, it is still possible to climb up one of the 4 towers for a view over the entire valley

Capocastello is located in the municipality of Mercogliano and is a typical medieval village. In the past it was surrounded by stone walls to protect the town and above all the ancient castle that overlooked the town.

Ruins of the Castle of the hamlet of Mercogliano "Capocastello"

This castle was wanted by Tommaso II d'Aquino. Over the years it was the home of nobles, such as the Sicilian kings, but later also of brigands.

The castle of Matinale, or castle of Rudovaco, is a castle of Cancello, a fraction of the municipality of San Felice a Cancello, in the province of Caserta. It stands on an elevation overlooking the entrance to the Suessola valley. The construction of the castle of Matinale is attributed to Tommaso II d'Aquino, count of Acerra, on the occasion of his wedding with Margherita di Svevia, illegitimate daughter of Emperor Frederick II, a wedding which took place before 1247. The bride's dowry included the fiefdom di Suessola, to which the Cancello hamlet also belonged. According to local tradition, an original Lombard fortification of the ninth century would have been the work of a certain Rudovaco and would have passed on to his death to the Count of Acerra, Cullezio. He wanted to join his castle of Acerra to that of Cancello with an underground path, causing the ruin of the western side and was unable to restore it following his death in battle. The castle was later restored or rebuilt by the Norman Ramperto and again by the Mattaloni counts in the 12th century. The castle hosted the kings of Sicily Guglielmo il Malo (1131-1166) and Manfredi di Svevia (1232-1266) and the Dukes of Rebursa and again, in the Angevin period, King Ladislao I and the Carafa in the Aragonese period. In the 15th century it was abandoned, having lost its military function. It was the seat of an inn and probably housed an archpriest church dedicated to St. Thomas the Apostle. In 1799 the French general Jean Étienne Championnet established his headquarters there and later became a den of brigands. It was donated at the beginning of the twentieth century by the D'Aquino family, princes of Caramanico, to the baron Giovanni Barracco. During the Second World War it hosted the allied command in 1943.

The ruins of the castle are very impressive and are worth a visit. Too bad for the very poor enhancement of the site that deserves a better fate ...

The Castle of Arienzo "Castem Vetus" which dominates Mons Argentium, known today as Monte Castello, dates back to the 7th century and was built by the Lombards to first defend the Duchy and then the Principality of Benevento. Due to its strategic position, the castle was a lookout post over the entire valley below. From 879/882, the city of Suessola was raided and destroyed by the Saracens. After the destruction of the city, following a fire, part of the Suessolani took refuge on Mount Argentarium, where there was a castle. In 1135 King Ruggero II D'Altavilla, known as the Norman, asked for it to be demolished. The latter, having to leave for Sicily, feared that in his absence the soldiers of Rainulfo could settle in the fortress and control the vast territory from above. His order was only partially carried out and later the castle was rebuilt by his son Guglielmo. From 1135, after the destruction of the Arienzo castle, the inhabitants went down to the valley where they built the new Castle of Arienzo, known as "the Terra Murata". The castles of Arpaia, Cancello, Maddaloni, Casertavecchia were built on the highest peaks of the surrounding mountains. https://www.marianodeangelis.com/portfolio/castello-di-arienzo

The castle of Matinale, or Rudovaco, is a castle in Cancello, a hamlet of the municipality of S. Felice a Cancello, in the province of Caserta. It stands on an elevation that dominates the entrance to the Suessola valley. The construction of the Castle is attributed to Thomas II Aquinas, Count of Acerra. [....] According to local tradition, an original Lombard fortification from the 9th century was the work of a certain Rudovaco and passed upon his death to the Count of Acerra, Cullezio. He wanted to connect his castle of Acerra to that of Cancello with an underground route, causing the ruin of the western side and was unable to carry out the restoration following his death in battle. The castle was later restored or rebuilt by the Norman Ramperto and again by the Mattaloni counts in the 12th century. The castle hosted the kings of Sicily William the Evil (1131-1166) and Manfred of Swabia (1232-1266) and the dukes of Rebursa and again, in the Angevin era, King Ladislaus I and the Carafa in the Aragonese era. In the 15th century it was abandoned, having lost its military function. [....] It was donated at the beginning of the twentieth century by the D'Aquino family, princes of Caramanico, to Baron Giovanni Barracco. During the Second World War it hosted the Allied command in 1943. The castle has a square plan with square corner towers and a fifth tower on the north-west side to protect a postern. The tallest tower measures 20 m high. Splayed windows open in the towers and on the walls. The structures are in uncertain masonry, with corners in ashlar blocks, with wide smooth edges, over 7 m in height. The thickness of the masonry reaches approximately 2.5 m in the towers. The main access portal opens on the south-west side, near one of the towers, and has a double archivolt in white limestone blocks, with the sliding channel for the closing portcullis, and an external smooth ashlar display with an upper profile spearheaded (similar to the portals of the Norman-Swabian castles of Bari and Gioia del Colle). Inside it was divided into four two-storey wings around a courtyard, with rooms with various roofs (acute barrel vaults, cross vaults or wooden vaults on arches). Currently only the south-eastern wing is preserved. https://fondoambiente.it/luoghi/castello-del-matinale?ldc