Castro (city)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the city in the province of Lecce, see Castro (LE).
Castro was an ancient city on the west side of Lake Bolsena in the present-day comune of Ischia di Castro, northern Lazio, Italy.
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[edit] History
The settlement Castro was founded in prehistoric times, and was later the seat of a not specified Etruscan city, problably identifiable with Statonia. In the Middle Ages it had a castle (Latin: castrum), hence the name. As an autonomous commune, it remained anyway under the Papal suzerainty. In 1527 an independentist faction took the power, but they were ousted by Pier Luigi Farnese, whose family was to rule Castro until the 17th century. In the same year another Farnese, Gian Galeazzo, had it sacked in the wake of the Sack of Rome.
In 1537, three years after the election of Alessandro Farnese as Pope Paul III, it became the seat of an independent Duchy under his son Pier Luigi. The town, which in the meantime had reduced to a "gypsies' hut" in the words of a contemporary, was reconstructed under the design of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger.
Later the enmity of the powerful Papal family of the Barberini caused so-called Wars of Castro, fought during the reigns of Urban VIII Barberini and Innocent X against the Dukes (now also lords of Parma and Piacenza) Odoardo Farnese and then his son Ranuccio II. The wars ended badly for the city: on the orders of Innocent X, the city was razed on September 2, 1649, and never rebuilt.
[edit] Sources
- Cavoli, A. (1990). La Cartagine della Maremma.
- Luzi, R.. Storia di Castro e della sua distruzione.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Cigola, Riccardo. "History: Facts & Persons". Retrieved January 23, 2005.
[edit] External links
- The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, Chapter XXIV - Author George Dennis describes the ruins of Castro in this 1848 book.
- "Farnese and its history" - a brief description of Castro's history, and how it appears today.
