- Art and culture
- The Castle
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The imposing and elegant Alviano Castle strategically dominates the entire middle Tiber Valley from above, and with its majesty recalls the greatness of the Liviani dynasty, from the century. XII lords of these lands. It is spread over three floors, plus an attic, and is surrounded by a wall with four corner towers. At the entrance to the castle, the lion in the pillory and a medusa head, placed on the facade, symbolize the Alviano fiefdom. The fortress was in fact born as a defensive residence around 995, with the arrival of Count Offred of Germany, who according to tradition was the progenitor of the Alviano family, but very little remains of that original castle due to the destruction suffered in 1495 by work of Amelia. The manor returned to the family thanks to Francesco d'Alviano who made it his residence, but it was destroyed by the Chiaravalle family and its reconstruction, at the beginning of the 1500s, was done by his son Bartolomeo. The new structure was built as a sumptuous baronial residence, with some rooms decorated by Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis known as Pordenone. Since Bartolomeo was a military architect, he took care to equip the structure with defense bodies at strategic points, following the rules of military architecture designed by Leon Battista Alberti. In 1500 his son Bernardino, an expert foundryman, transformed the fortress into one of the most important cannon foundries in Umbria. Due to lack of male heirs, in 1543, the Alvianos lost the fiefdom and changed their name to Liviani. From that moment on, the castle lost its military importance and has since then had several owners, starting from the Marquis Raimondy of Genoa to become, in the seventeenth century, the property of Donna Olimpia Maidalchini, wife of Panfilio Pamphilj, and finally, by descent, in 1816 it was inherited by Prince Don Andrea II Doria Pamphilj Landi.
The fortress is in pure Renaissance style characterized by a beautiful internal courtyard with a double loggia overlooked by numerous valuable rooms. Among these is the chapel of San Francesco with a series of well-made seventeenth-century frescoes, which can be considered as a sort of visual memory of the history of Alviano.
Today the Castle, expertly restored, is the fulcrum of city life: the main floor houses the Town Hall; on the ground floor there is the audiovisual documentation center on the Alviano Oasis, as well as a modern and equipped conference centre; the basement currently houses the Museum of peasant civilization "The earth and the instrument", where the most significant instruments and utensils used by Alvianese families between the end of the 19th century and the post-war period are exhibited. Also in the basement is the Bartolomeo d'Alviano multimedia museum: it was inaugurated on 1 July 2000, home to the Center for Studies on Captains of Fortune.
- History and territory
- Monuments and churches
- Museum
- Legends and Traditions
Comune di Alviano
P.zza Bartolomeo d’Alviano, 10 - 05020 Alviano (Tr)
Tel. 0744.904521 - Fax 0744.904678
P.IVA: 00180530552
Posta certificata: comune.alviano@postacert.umbria.it
P.zza Bartolomeo d’Alviano, 10 - 05020 Alviano (Tr)
Tel. 0744.904521 - Fax 0744.904678
P.IVA: 00180530552
Posta certificata: comune.alviano@postacert.umbria.it
