Italian castles: Palazzo baronale, Archi

The Baronial Palace, also known as Castello Lannutti, is a fortified palace in Archi, Province of Chieti, Abruzzo.

The town of Fara Adami, located along the Sangro River and ruled by the gastaldo Raniero and a priest named Adamo, is mentioned for the first time in the 11th century. The Catalogus baronum, compiled by King Roger II of Sicily in 1075, is the first official document attesting to its existence.

Archi was a fief of the Caldora family in the 15th century, and the castle was owned in turn by Jacopo, Antonio, and his son Restaino Caldora.

After various feudal lord vicissitudes, Archi and the castle passed to Martino di Segua in 1559. Martino restored some of the castle’s wings on several occasions, according to several notarial documents. Master Antonio Malerba completed the work. Martino, on the other hand, had to sell the castle at auction in 1563 to pay off debts.

According to 17th-century documents, Giovanni Battista Marino was involved in legal problems when he inherited the castle in 1644.

The castle was then held by various feudal lords, the last of which was the Aldimari of Bomba, who held it with Marquis Giovanni until the abolition of feudalism in 1806.

It was most recently purchased by the Lannutti family, who lived there until the German seizure in 1943. The Nazis used the castle as a military outpost above the Sangro Valley to monitor the arrival of Allied troops from Perano; just before retreating to the Alto Sangro mountains, the Nazis damaged and undermined the castle, reducing it to its current state of ruin.

Featured image source: wikipedia