Ever wanted to stay in a castle? Now is your chance. Spend some time at the Castle
Hotel Castello della Castelluccia, one of the most intriguing and
enigmatic castles to be found in the whole of Italy. Now a deluxe four star the
Hotel, the Castle has had an illustrious and often mysterious past.
HistoryIn Roman Times the castle rose from the remains of an ancient Roman Villa.
Built between the 12th and 13th centuries by the noble family Cancellieri, who
were themselves derived from the Orisini family. Midway through the 13th
century, the castle passed to the Muti family.
Towards the end of the 14th century, the castle was ceded to the Cenci
family, whose family residents included the famous intellectual of the period,
Alessio Cenci. In 1420, the castle passed to the Del Bufalo and Cancellieri
families.
At the start of the 16th century, La Castelluccia once more became the
property of the Orsini family, but only for approximately, 20 years, when it was
returned to the Cancellieri family. The Muti family took over the castle in
1590. Towards the end of the 16th century, the castle belonged to the noble
family Azzolino, after initiating housing projects for their tenants, coined the
phrase - borgus novus.
In 1660, the castle grew and subsequently was divided between two noble
families Angelo Celsi and Antonina Celsi. Towards the end of the 17th century,
the castle in its entirety, was bought by the Roman family Dei Giustiniani.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the castle became the property of Count
Mantemarte who, to ease gambling debts, tried to sell it, unsuccessfully, to the
Countess Rospigliosi. In 1704, the authorities confiscated and ceded the castle
to Prince Livio Odescalchi in settlement of an unpaid debt. In the second half
of the 18th century Prince Odelaschi ceded to the castle to the Azzolini family.
In 1852, La Castelluccia was acquired by Prince Boncompagni one of the
most famous nobleman in recent Roman history.
In the 19th century, the castle then became home to the legendary tenor
Francesco Marconi.
History & Myths:
Tales of haunted castles in Italy abound, although, the truth be said many are
without foundation or credible evidence to support them… at the Hotel
Castello della Castelluccia and surrounding area not one, but
three ghosts, are said to reside.
Cristina of Sweden and the Alchemist: Cristina of Sweden came
to Rome in 1655 for a summer holiday. She was deeply religious and came to Rome
to consecrate her faith in the Roman Catholic Church. She also came for another
"secret" reason… Cristina had a secret passion - alchemy - which in
those days was scorned upon and in many countries incurred the penalty of an
excruciating death for all those who practised it… her love of magic and
supernatural phenomena however, could not be swayed.
One day just as dusk was falling Cristina was walking in the woods
near the Castelluccia. All of a sudden she saw a bright light, which flared up,
almost as if from directly inside the Tower of the Castle Castelluccia. Her
curiosity aroused she decided to investigate the mysterious light and approached
the tower. Unknown to Cristina, in the tower lived a famous alchemist called
Tiraboschi, who, for some time had been experimenting with different formulas to
turn everything into gold. Tiraboschi upon meeting Cristina was delighted to
find someone who shared his passion and immediately begun showing her his
chemistry kit. Tiraboschi was terribly excited and felt he was close to
succeeding in his goal to make all things gold. He explained to Cristina that
the flash that she had seen was a chemical reaction between two flammable
substances which would provide the catalyst for his experiment to work. He
invited to Cristina to have a closer look and in her excitement she slipped down
the stairs and fell. As she fell her gold necklace slipped off and landed in the
pot. Embarrassed and afraid of having ruined the experiment she made her excuses
and left without telling Tiraboschi what had happened. Not soon after she left
Tiraboschi found the gold necklace inside his pot and was convinced his potion
had worked. Delirious with excitement he began celebrating and drinking quite a
lot of the local wine.
Intoxicated and boastful he began challenging the almighty himself.
Tiraboschi claimed he was more powerful than God and began boasting that perhaps
he indeed was better than god seeing as even the lord himself could not turn
things gold. That same evening a bolt of lightning struck the Tower killing
Tiraboschi instantly and seriously damaging the tower.
Things that go Clip Clop in the Night: For a couple of
centuries some of the finest horses in Italy were bred in the grounds of the Castle
Castelluccia. Unfortunately due to a gambling debt, the Count Rimbambito was
forced to sell the stables and the horses were removed to a foreign land.
Unfortunately, whilst abroad the horses could not acclimatise to foreign shores
and within a matter of months every last one of them perished forever. Upon
hearing the news of the death of his beloved horses, the Count Rimbambito was
devastated. He resorted to alcohol to seek solace and in his inebriated state
was convinced he could hear the horses. At first the servants and locals assumed
he was simply delirious from the drink and distraught at his loss, but slowly
the noises got louder and more people began to hear them.
A few years later the Count died a broken man, however, the noises
continued. Legend has it that the horses spirits returned to the place they
loved and at night they roam the grounds of the Castelluccia, just as they did
all that time ago.
Quite a few years ago some rationalists tried to explain the legend
by claiming that the clip clop of the horses hooves was simply the water from
the stream running over the rocks. To prove their point they dredged the stream
and made it devoid of rocks… the noises continue to this day.
The Tomb of Nero: In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned
King of Italy. To celebrate the occasion Pope Pius the 7th decided to organise a
series of parties and special events to commemorate the event. One of these
special events was a fantastic plan of floating and flying a giant airborne
balloon filled with different coloured luminous glass elements. The idea was to
fly the balloon from Castelluccia to the Lake of Bracciano, however, the balloon
never got that far. Shortly after take off the balloon crash landed directly on
top of the Tomb of the infamous and fearsome former Roman Emperor Nero.
Today you can still see signs of the impact of the balloon upon the
Tomb. The locals upon seeing the flash and multi-coloured ball were convinced a
UFO had landed and rushed to the spot. For weeks peasants, villagers and
souvenir hunters plagued the area looking for bits of the wreckage of the
balloon's ill fated maiden voyage. Legend has it that Nero was livid at, first
of all, the balloon and then all those pesky people disturbed his sleep. It is
said that the commotion caused by the impact and its aftermath, rose him from
his sleep and made him leave his tomb.
For the last two centuries many people have sworn that they have
seen him roaming the fields and woods of the Castelluccia looking,
unsuccessfully, for a place to sleep… well if he is still looking he need not
worry as the Hotel Castello della Castelluccia is open and ready for
business.
The Castle Castelluccia has always belonged to a rich noble Italian
family of one sort of another. For over 7 centuries the upper classes have wined
and dined at this exclusive picturesque residence. Horse riding, Fox hunting,
state banquets and regal occasions were all part of the castles illustrious
past. Now, delve into the history of the Castelluccia and make your next trip to
Rome a memorable one.