Until the end of the seventeenth century you got into the castle at Pescolanciano by a retractable stair leaning against the keep on the north-east side: unwelcome callers simply stayed outside. Then the D'Alessandro family sealed that opening and cut a new one, with a drawbridge, finished in 1691. The gesture sums the building up — a fortress slowly giving up on defence and learning to receive.
The fortified palace has a pentagonal plan and stands on the rock spur, the peschio that gave the village its name, directly above the houses. The first firm records date to the thirteenth century, when the local lord Ruggero di Peschio Lanciano was ordered by Frederick II to move against hostile fiefs; the expedition set out from here in 1224. When the D'Alessandro took over from the Eboli at the end of the sixteenth century they found separate fortified blocks, an Angevin tower and a ring of walls; the works welded them into a single mass.
What to see
At the heart of the fortress is the family chapel, finished in 1628 with inlaid marble, stucco work and paintings. In 1673 Duke Fabio had the relics of Saint Alexander the Martyr brought here from Rome, together with the vessel of his blood, reassembled into a wax effigy: a corpo santo, as the certificate of authenticity records. Outside are the seventeenth-century guardhouse with its arabesqued balcony, the stores, the stables, the gun-slit windows and the stone footings. The entrance front is another matter altogether, and looks like a town palace: it was rebuilt in 1849, after the damage of the 1805 earthquake, by which time the castle had lost every military purpose.
Visiting
The castle does not open daily. Since 2018 the municipality and the Intramontes association have run guided tours, exhibitions and events on set dates and by booking, so check the calendar before setting off. Part of the building still belongs to the family and part is publicly owned, and the two sides manage it together.
Our editors' tip
If you can choose, come on 26 August, the feast of Saint Alexander the Martyr: the old celebration was revived in 1996 and the ducal chapel does again what it was built for. And ask about the war — in 1943 the Germans held a headquarters here for the Cassino front and, unusually for them, left without blowing anything up.