Castel di Luco

Castel di Luco is a fortified building that stands on the top of a rocky outcrop of travertine, this privileged location makes the isolated castle on the rise that houses it, such as to exploit the natural defensibility of the place. Located near the village of Paggese, overlooking the ancient consular Salaria that runs along the river Tronto.La fortress preserved its medieval aspect is particularly charming for its unusual elliptical shape. The documentary sources do not speak unambiguously about the origins of the building, the hypothesis about the birth of Castel di Luco reported by Giuseppe Colucci, abbot and historian Ascoli in 1700, which refers in his text Of picene antiquity, describes the site as a place of worship Italic-Roman. This author believed that the area, where today stands the fortress there was a sacred grove where they celebrated pagan rites and that the castle would have been built in the middle of the woods, on the height of travertine that probably were the altars of sacrifice. Bernardo Carfagna says that the castle might sink its origins in the military-territorial reorganization of Byzantine that determined the creation of new principals castrensian creating a real “revolution” of the municipal districts of Rome. In times prior to the emergence of the City Ascolano, Castel di Luco must have done, almost certainly, a kind of role of “court of law”. He overcame the attack of Charles of Anjou and the militias of Galeotto I Malatesta. In the thirteenth century was the property of the Sforza. From 1400 to 1800 he belonged to the family Pacifiers. Pietro di Vanne Pacifiers, lord of Luco, heading a group of mountaineers set off on Aug. 10, 1445 from a fortified residence, to free from the power of Rinaldo Ascoli Piceno Folignano, uterine brother of Francesco Sforza. Arrived in the city, after occupying the building of Rinaldo, he proclaimed the Papal sovereignty. The bandit Ascoli Parisani in 1562 he killed in this castle Chiarino Montaroni, who would defend the garrison. Parisani took possession of the body and with the help of his henchmen threw it in the river Tronto. In the years that followed the castle fortress, he turned into a noble residence of the family that owned it Pacifiers until 1800. Now the ancient fort is home to a structure.