The castle was raised in 969 by Otto I of Saxony, to keep an eye on the Byzantines. Then it became a place to send people who had to be got out of the way: in 1036 some Milanese rebels were confined here, and once freed they stayed, because Milan had an epidemic, and from them came the town's first families; later Enrico Carlotto, a son of Frederick II, was shut up here, and in 1253 his brother Conrad IV ordered the castellan to kill him.
Ruins are what is left of the castle, but its stones can still be seen in Palazzo Frascella, put up with the fallen blocks. In 1940 the town took in another man under forced residence, the economist Manlio Rossi-Doria. There are 3,168 residents.
badia di Santa Maria di Pierno · chiesa di Santa Maria della Quercia · Cascate di San Fele
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Next up: Saint Sebastian, a patron who survived only in a tower, Wednesday 20 January
Nearest airport: Napoli Capodichino, 105 km away
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📅 Every year, on 20 January
San Fele celebrates Saint Sebastian on 20 January; of the old church dedicated to him, destroyed by the 1456 earthquake, only a Norman-style tower survives, today incorporated into a palace.
badia di Santa Maria di Pierno The west wing of this 12th-century monastery is still lived in as private homes. 
chiesa di Santa Maria della Quercia Built in 1514 from blocks the earthquakes had shaken loose from the castle. 
Cascate di San Fele The falls carry the dialect name of the fulling mill their water once drove. Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
