Gradara and Its Castle [antikvár]

gradara «It is certainly one of the finest 14th century castles in Italy, thanks to its architectonic structures and suggestive position on a green sunny hill». This is what Marinelli says about the CASTLE OF GRADARA, which, magnificent and solitary, rises on the top of a hill, ainnost on the borders between the Marche and Romagna, surrounded only by wide horizons, delimited by the mountains of Carpegna and Montefeltro on the south-west side and the Adriatic Sea on the north-east side. Green hillocks, covered with luxuriant vineyards and olive-groves, rise all around it. The tourist that reaches the castle and looks at such an impregnable citadel, cannot help Apci-^^ thinking of past events, great love stories, sad infamous actions, glorious deeds and fraticidal fights. Names of famous personages and families come to his mind: Frances of Rimini and Lucretia Borgia, Grifo, Malatesta, Sforza, Della Rovere. Here history and old legends blend well At the foot of Gradara lies the beautiful village of Gradara that has kept the characteristic look of a medieval village with its old houses and narrow, winding alleys. The built-up area is surrounded by walls with powerful rectangular towers. Guelph (flat-^ topped) or Ghibelline (double-pointed) battlements (depending on the lord who built them), crown the walls, which have a big tower on the north side, while, on the south side, two other towers rise at the entrance of the castle. A second set of walls, called "girone", adjoins the castle. The remains of the old com-munication passages ending with the guard-room, still run along the walls. ITS HISTORY The construction of the castle began in the 12th century, but this area has been populated since the Roman age. There was a "Grande Ara" (Great Altar), from which the present name of the town derives, where the people of the environs, specially those of the Crostumio area, near the present Cattolica, offered their sacrifices. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Gradara area, too, had to face the barbarian invasions and the cruel Byzantine domination. / . With the feudal period began the oppression of the powerful feudal lords, who, taking ad-'^^^^t.c. vantage of the frequent fights between the Empire and the Papacy, strenghtened their power more than ever, so much so that many country people had to leave their fields and settle In the towns, where life was more bearable. When this area passed under the papal rule, it was divided into "pagi" and each "pagus" into"vici"or"castella". A record found in the archbishop's archives in Ravenna, bears witness to the existence, in ^ the Gadarese "vicus", of a parish-church dedicated to St. Sophia around the year 1030. In the little church, built on the foundations of an even older church, left by the monks around 1500, there is still a bell dated 1008. In the 12th century, when the Free Towns began to flourish, even some towns of the Papal State, mainly in the Marche and Romagna, tried to become indipendent, and some families, the descendants of old feudal lords, tried to take possession of lands. The powerful GRIFO family, too, taking advantage of the weak authority of the Holy See, took possession of various areas and buildings In "Curte Cretarie", that depended on the town of Pesaro, as it is recorded in a document dated 1182. In order to defend such .possessions, around 1160 Pietro and Ridolfo, two brothers, built a powerful tower, with Ghibelline battlements, called "Grifo" after their family name. The tower, as most fortifications of the time, had the entrance gate about ten metres above the ground and wooden staircases connecting one floor with the other. 3