Castello - Carcere Borbonico
A fortress, a castrum with defensive walls, a defensive structure surrounded by a wall that dates back to the Lombard period, and that was later expanded and strengthened by the Normans, Swabians, Angevins and Aragonese. At the base of the walls, in St. Bartolomeo square, there is a large stone with the date of 1103. You could access the village through various doors: Porta Canale, Porta San Bartolomeo and Porta Tezza. The castle, that changed over the years, has had different functions. Under the Aragonese, it became the provincial tribunal of the Ultra Principality. Then, in 1851, Ferdinand II of Bourbon transformed the former castle/tribunal in a political prison for patriots against the Bourbons, where the prisoners were violently and cruelly treated and the living and environmental conditions were so poor and bad that the castle/prison was called the Spielberg of Irpinia. The prison continued to be used until 1877, and then it became a regional prison until 1923. Since 1928, the castle/prison is a national monument, a museum called “The Spielberg of the Renaissance” divided in two sections where there are various expositions and cultural activities.