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A Bit of History ........
The Castellina fortress, which occupies the entire western side of
Piazza San Benedetto, was built as a fortified residence for the
apostolic governors. Because of the succession of tumultuous conflicts
in the town beginning in the early 16th century, following the raids by
foreign armies during the war between the France and the Empire and in
particular after the umpteenth bloody battle in 1554, Pope Julius III
ordered the building of the Castellina.
The grounds for the work can be
read on the north tower. Vignola (Jacopo Barozzi) was commissioned with
the project, and on August 28, 1554, in the presence of the governor
Sebastiano Atracino and the consuls he traced the plan in Norcia near
the Ceresce gate.
The first stone was laid on September 10. (The
construction of the fortress required, with the pope’s consent, the
destruction of the old church of Santa Maria Argentea, rebuilt nearby,
and of the Podesta’s Palace, of which only the oblique wall remains,
incorporated into the fortress.)
Museum floor plans: |
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Up:
Upper
Floor of Castellina. Red: museum, green: "Partire per l'aldilà",
yellow: Frescoed Chapel
Up: main floor of Castellina,
blue: Massenzi Collection, orange: the Warrior Prince, violet: main entrance, box office and bookshop.
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In 1569
Pope Pius V established the Mountain Prefecture as part of the
reorganization of the Papal States, designating the Castellina fortress—militarily
protected and architecturally well-suited for representative functions—as
its official seat.
On a
political level, the Castellina signified the end of local autonomy,
doing away with the role of the consuls (which survived nonetheless
until the early 19th century) and became the symbol of the irreversible
crisis of the communal government and the central power’s recovery of
political control over the outlying areas.
The
fortress is composed of a ground floor, a piano nobile (“noble floor”)
and various mezzanines. It has a square plan, with bastions at the
corners with steep escarpments and oblique bases. The entire edifice is
encircled by a strong molding, above which are the windows, covered by
iron gratings until 1861.
The main
entrance is on the square, and has three coats of arms. Placed at the
sides are two lions in the style of the Beuronense school (early 20th
cent.), which until the 1950s decorated the crypt of St. Benedict. On
the western side there is a gate in line with the main entrance, opened
by the sweat and toil of the prisoners “Publicae commoditati reorum
sumptibus, 1734.” A large part of the stone used for building the
Castellina came from demolished or ruined buildings, including ancient
structures.
Entering
by the main gate, there is a paved atrium with three doors. The doors at
the sides give access to the former chancelleries (civil and criminal,
for the administering of justice done directly by the Prefect or by
deputies), while the central door leads to the courtyard. The courtyard
is enclosed by a portico of twelve arches that supports a covered
gallery.
Underneath the cross vaults are the 16th-century doors (with
the coats of arms of prefects frescoed on the vault) of the chancellery
courtroom, the jails, the stables, the garrison’s quarters and the
torture room. An underground tunnel exiting from the torture room was
built in 1562, passing outside the city walls. It was used “to exit
underground, to bring into or to release from prison, to send out the
guards or have them come at night secretly and without hindrance, and
for other requirements of justice and of the superior” (Malvasia).
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The fountain in the courtyard has a
statue reassembled from two separate Roman fragments, traditionally
indicated as Vespasia Polla Nursina, mother of the emperor Vespasian
(photo at left)
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The north
wing has a double stair that leads on one side to the basement rooms,
and on the other to the piano nobile. The elegant grand staircase was
built to the wishes of the Roman prefect Giovan Bernardo Piscina in
1587, replacing a wooden staircase and partially restored after the
earthquakes in the 18th century. The piano nobile has the council halls
with the courtroom, the frescoed chapel and the residence of the Prefect.
The upper
floor is now home to the Civic and Diocesan Museum. Opened in 1967, it
has works from the Commune, the Curia and the Istituti Riuniti di
Beneficenza of Norcia exhibited in an arrangement planned by Francesco
Santi, at that time the art historian at the Superintendence of Perugia.
The 1979
earthquake severely damaged the Castellina, forcing the town to evacuate
the art works until 1997, when the museum was reopened to the public
with a new exhibition arrangement which is yet to be completed and
expanded.
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Sito Ufficiale
(Italiano)
Official Site
(English)
