TodiCastle, also known as Capecchio, is a castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 located c. 15 km south of the town of Todi

Todi

Todi is a town and comune of the province of Perugia in central Italy. It is perched on a tall two-crested hill overlooking the east bank of the river Tiber, commanding distant views in every direction.In the 1990s, Richard S...

, on a hilltop to the east side of a town called Collelungo  which is part of the Municipality of Baschi

Baschi

Baschi is a comune in the Province of Terni in the Italian region Umbria, located about 50 km southwest of Perugia and about 35 km northwest of Terni....

, near Terni

Terni

Terni is a city in southern Umbria, central Italy, capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera river. It is 104 km N of Rome, 36 km NW of Rieti, and 29 km S of Spoleto.-History:...

, in Umbria

Umbria

Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

History

The castle was built as a watch tower during the Roman times

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, in a strategic position commanding the area bounded by the river Tiber

Tiber

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...

, the river Arnata and the via Amerina

Via Cassia

The Via Cassia was an important Roman road striking out of the Via Flaminia near the Milvian Bridge in the immediate vicinity of Rome and, passing not far from Veii traversed Etruria...

, which linked Todi to the Lazio.

Its strategic function continued into the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. When Desiderius

Desiderius

Desiderius was the last king of the Lombard Kingdom of northern Italy...

, the last king of the Lombards

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

, reigned over Italy. The territory of the Julia colony was granted to the Pope; five hundred years later, in 1275, it became part of the Diocese of Todi

Diocese of Todi

The Italian Catholic diocese of Todi existed until 1986, when it was united into the diocese of Orvieto-Todi. It was directly dependent on the Holy See.-History:During the Gothic War the city of Todi withstood Totila during a long and severe siege...

 and then of the commune

Medieval commune

Medieval communes in the European Middle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense among the citizens of a town or city. They took many forms, and varied widely in organization and makeup. Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread...

 of Todi. Between the 10th century and the 13th century additional towers were built and the original one was incorporated into a castle fort, TodiCastle, composed of three corner towers and an expansive bastion wall, in order to control a wider territory.

The Municipality of Todi wanted complete control of the area, so it decided to maintain an army of more than 5,000 men and built an enormous system of fortifications, composed by dozens of fortresses, towers and fortified historic towns with city walls.

In the years after the outbreak of the Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

, the castle stood in what had become a desolate territory of abandoned villages, and was used by wanderers.

At the beginning of the 15th century, after many years of neglect, it was transformed into a monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

. A roof was constructed in the northern courtyard and the space was adapted to serve as a church, dedicated to St. Quiricus and Julitta. Nowadays, the remains of the capitular hall, the altar, the sacristy and the points at which the vaulted ceiling (now collapsed) once joined the fortress walls are still evident.

Approximately two centuries later, during the 17th century, the monastery was abandoned and the castle became the object of conflicting claims amongst various local lords and, in the end, a noble family of Todi, the Landi family, gained the ownership. Despite this, the TodiCastle remained abandoned for three hundred years.

Afterwards, during the 20th century, TodiCastle was acquired by the Paparini family, the most important landowners of the area of Todi and Moruzze and then, in 1974, by Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Santoro

Giuseppe Santoro

Giuseppe Santoro was born in Ceglie Messapica, Puglia, in 1930.-Background:His father Mario, a barrister,  was from a family from Naples. The family moved to Rome during the second half of the 19th century, where Giuseppe attended school and university. His great-grandfather and his grandfather...

.

When the castle was abandoned, it was considered a local community property, a kind of public space where farmers stored their grain and housed their pigs. It was restored by the Santoro family since 1975.