Secret Castle Photo Gallery

Tours of Castles and Grand Gardens in and around Rome Italy, photos and history

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All photos by Lisa Finerty. Permission required for use.

The Castles of Rome are vestiges of the five centuries of the so-called Dark Ages, when Europe had no superpower for enforcement, and the early Renaissance, when the Catholic Church dominated social and cultural life. As castle architecture improved, defensive fortifications had strategic line-of-sight openings and successive constructions actually changed shape, from square to star. As the Church began to reassert order and its authority in the early 14th century, the castles and their surrounding cluster of homes and workshops benefited from new visitors whose traffic characterized and created the new concept of commerce.

The first travel routes beyond the Roman road system made a network connecting the castles. Crusade adventurers and, later, religious pilgrims used these structures on their way to and from Rome. It is still easy to imagine the Canterbury pilgrims telling their tales around some of these fireplaces.

Most of these outlying medieval castles were “rehabbed” into the starter luxury living quarters of Roman Renaissance VIPs seeking a healthy break from the plagues or invasions that Rome sustained during those years. The stone walls were covered with silk to inhibit bug infestation in the summers and with leather to retain heat in the winter months. Some of these castles are still hung with these textiles; some pieces of original furniture are still in situ.

The castle floor plans show considerable innovation and variety: pentagons with oval interior courtyards, octagons with squared courtyards, squares with irregular or multiple spaces. Indeed, castles were built around castles. And yes, there was waste disposal built into many walls, including those of the “keep” where enemies (most often accused of religious heresy) were locked up, to be fed through a grate solely by townspeople taking pity.

Moats surrounded most castles. Most were later drained for “secret gardens” to be used only by the family, while the water which had once filled them was diverted to grand gardens with decorative fountains.

Several of these castles are still inhabited, at least part-time, by these same families, and it is always interesting to chat with them.

Return to Six Degrees of Separation Castle Tour

SECRET CASTLE PHOTO GALLERY

Gardens of Umbria & Lazio