Arechi Castle

Historical background

The castle known as ‘of Arechi’ is located at a height of about 300 meters above sea level, on Bonadies Hill. It was built around the VIth century by the Byzantines, who probably expanded an already existing ancient Roman castrum.

.

In the 8th century the Lombard prince Arechi II, from whom the fortress takes its name, In the 8th century the Lombard prince Arechi the Second, from whom the fortress takes its name, decided to move his court to Salerno and expanded its defense system, starting from the castle a mighty wall that encircled the entire city from the hill to the sea. For centuries the ancient building maintained its defensive function, undergoing new modifications in the Norman, Angevin and Aragonese eras, during which it reached its maximum development.

The castle was built in the Middle Ages.

The structure underwent its last transformations in the 16th century, before its defensive needs came to an end.

The castle was used as a temporary residence by the Sanseverino princes, feudal lords of Salerno, and with time, lost its importance until it was almost completely abandoned with the’Unification of Italy.

In the 1960s the Province of Salerno purchased the castle from its last owners, initiating lengthy and complex restoration work and allowing new excavation activities to take place. Since the ’1980s, the’entire complex began to be returned to the public, leading to its complete reopening in the 2000s.

The Castle Today

The current configuration dates back to the sixteenth century, when the last functional changes were made, before defensive needs changed and the castle gradually lost its importance.

Today, the fortress preserves the architectural traces of the different periods in which it was featured. Made of local dark stone blocks, it has a central structure and a series of enclosures or compartments, which allowed the complex’s defense possibilities to be increased. Also part of the castle’s defensive system was theTurret, a massive, square-plan construction overlooking the sea to the east of the city. Slightly higher up, on a rocky outcrop above the castle, is the tower known as “The Bastille”, also part of the defense complex.

Since 2009, Arechi Castle has housed a medieval museum where numerous artifacts found during archaeological excavation and restoration campaigns conducted during the 20th century are on display. Prominent among the preserved materials is pottery, used for military purposes between the 9th and 11th centuries and later for civilian use. There is no shortage of glass artifacts and numerous metal objects traceable to the varied activities carried out in the castle, dating from the early Middle Ages to contemporary times.

To be discovered

• The tower

.

The primitive layout of the tower, called in documents turris maior, raised about the middle of the sixth century by the Byzantines, is still partly recognizable today. It rose on the rock, developing over five or six floors. Its architecture was developed using the continuous wall perimeter and a series of piers that in turn supported the arches and vaults of the various floors

• The Bastille

The Normans were most likely responsible for the construction north of the Bonadies summit, on a rocky outcrop, of the Bastille, a veritable control tower. Consisting of a single room, it could be accessed only with the use of ladders or other removable tools, due to the obvious difference in height from the ground level of the outer countryside.

The tower was built by the Normans.

• Ceramics and glass

.

Archaeological excavations conducted in the castle have unearthed numerous fragments of “red-banded” pottery, characterized by decoration with narrow spirals or wide bands describing consecutive arches, protomaiolica pottery, characterized by glaze coating, and graffito pottery. Some glass goblets, whose coloring ranges between green and blue, date from around 1200.

 

---

Curiosities / Need to Know

.

 

• A Roman castrum

.

It was probably the inhabitants of the Roman colony of Salernum who first built a real military garrison on Bonadies Hill, whose main function was to control and “keep at bay” the threat of the Picentines, a local population ready to rebel against the predominant power of Rome.

• A prince and a monk

.

Arechi II, duke of Benevento and prince of Salerno, was a true patron to many men of culture of his time, including Paul Deacon, a Lombard monk and writer, author of the Historia Langobardorum. The work, written in Latin, consisted of six books and narrated the history of the Lombard people from their origins to the death of King Liutprand in 744.

• A sport from another time

.

In medieval times a popular sport was hunting, especially popular with lords and princes, who owned horses and dogs trained to sniff out and track prey. A widespread practice was hunting with hawks, which were trained both in low flight, to bring down prey by stealth, and in high flight, to precisely bring down prey from above. Hence originated the art of falconry still practiced today by experienced falconers.