Castello Pignatelli di Monteroduni

The Pignatelli castle, with its beautiful crenellated towers, dominates the Volturno plain on the Isernia-Venafro road. In the past it was a key point of entry into the "Contado del Molise" as a lookout on the Via Latina. A first settlement nucleus, in the places where today the castle rises, dates back to the Samnite age. The origins of the castle-fortress instead date back to the Lombard period, when the population was forced to retreat to face the violent Saracen raids. It was with the Norman domination, however, that the castle, for purely military needs, was enlarged compared to the original Lombard structure and strengthened with the erection of walls, which also included some homes. In 1193 the entire country paid dearly for its deployment against the Emperor Henry VI in favor of the Norman Tancredi. The German captain Moscaincervello, in the service of the emperor, besieged the castle that was burned and razed to the ground. In 1266, during Charles I of Anjou, the feud of Monteroduni was assigned to Eustace of Ardicourt and later to the d'Evoli. Just under the seigniory of d'Evoli, respectively in 1273 and in 1279, the fortress suffered great damages because of two violent earthquakes. Tommaso d'Evoli was forced to build a new structure which however does not correspond to the one we admire today. The economic possibilities of the Lord of Monteroduni did not allow work of such magnitude, also the structure that these built was subsequently damaged by other earthquakes, two between 1300 and 1308, and the last, violent, in 1349. The current structure dates back to the period following this seismic event. In all likelihood Queen Giovanna I of Anjou, giving as dowry the feud of Monteroduni (held by her as royal land) to her granddaughter Giovanna of Durazzo, took on the burden of restructuring occurred between 1350
and 1363 or 1366. At the beginning of 1500 the castle passed to the d'Afflitto family (1503-1668) and, subsequently, to the Pignatelli family
(1668-1806) to whom we owe the radical works that transformed the fortress from a military structure to an elegant, sumptuous and typically Renaissance residence.