Above the doorway, set in a frame of local stone, the Carafa-Molise arms are still the original ones: three small hats between two bars on the right and, on the left, the insignia of Porzia De Capoa, wife of Gerolamo. This is the part of the Ferrazzano castle that later rebuilding never touched. You reach the segmental arch by crossing a small stone bridge, which replaced the old wooden drawbridge at the end of the 17th century, when the fief belonged to Duke Antonio Vitagliano, known as the Elder.
What to see
The layout is Norman in origin, but what stands today came out of a collapse. The earthquake of 1496 destroyed the fortress; rebuilding ran from 1498 to 1506 and the work was finished only in the early 17th century. It is the standard operation of 16th-century architects: take a blunt, austere medieval stronghold and turn it into a liveable lordly residence without throwing away the defences. The two cylindrical corner towers rise from the ground on a battered base, the walls are about 40 cm thick, and stone steps once served them. The right-hand tower lost its wall-walk and now carries a small terrace. The other one, called the Giurato tower locally, is recognisable at once, though its upper part was altered: in the early 20th century it was adapted as a tank for the Sambuco water supply.
Our editors' tip
The courtyard deserves more than the two minutes it usually gets. The proportions are late Renaissance, a cistern sits in the middle, and the walls carry the heraldic arms of the noble families who held Ferrazzano in barony: the whole feudal story of the village, read through overlapping shields. Then step outside and walk round to the southern side, where the castle looks over a ravine that opens onto the valley — this is why the fortress went up here and nowhere else. The municipal coat of arms, fittingly, shows a three-towered fortress with the motto Munita resistit. The ducal title never died out either: the last duke of Ferrazzano, Antonio Moccia, passed it in 2008 to his daughter Mathilde, along with that of baroness of Sant'Angelo a Cupolo.