Top 10 Castles in Lazio, Italy

The Castello di Bracciano - a stone's throw from Rome - is one of the most impressive castles in Italy, Europe and the world. Completed in 1485 by the Orsini family, around an existing 12th century Vico fortress, it is one of the few renaissance castles in Italy that - thanks to the Odescalchi family - is open to the public. It also plays host to numerous weddings, galas and important cultural events throughout the year.

Just a few kilometers away from Rome, located in the province of Viterbo, in a small town named Vignanello, you can visit Castello Ruspoli. The garden, considered one of the most important in Italy, was created in 1611. The Castle offers an extensive range of activities, such as: guided tours, events, weddings, private luncheons and dinners, business conferences and guided tours.

The Subiaco's Abbatian Fortress is not only architecture and art but it represents also the history of Subiaco and of the surrounding territory. It was built almost a millennium ago, therefore in 1070 by the Abbot Giovanni V. Toward the middle if the 15th century Pope Callisto III decided to astablish the Cardinal Commendam so the fortress became the residence of the commendatory abbots. Here lived Rodrigo Borgia so in 1480 born his daughter Lucrezia Borgia.Today the Fortress is still considered a beautiful and suggestive place especially for its nobles and fully painted apartments of the Colonna (XVI sec.) and Braschi (XVIIIsec.) family. The fortress provides a single point of view on the medieval village and the valley below. Thanks to Liborio Coccetti's tempera yuo can see the entire fortress as it appeared at the and of 18 century, while the grotsque of the circle of Perin del Valgareminds yuo the atmosphere of the Renaissace banquets. Many historical figures have linked their name to the "Rocca Abbaziale". The most famous were RODRIGO BORGIA and her daugheter LUCREZIA BORGIA, the COLONNA FAMILY, POPE PIUS VI AND POPE PIUS IX.

In lonely and dominant position, the castello dei conti is located in the area where there was an ancient Acropolis in pre Roman times. Has more than a thousand years of history. Its origins date back to the 8th century; in the Middle Ages, it became the strategic centre of the de Ceccano county, nobles of German origin that descended in Italy with the Lombards. The family disappeared in the 15th century because it remained childless. At that time, the Princes Colonna of Rome took possession of the castle and transformed it into a prison, closed in 1973. Worthy of interest, indoors, a portion of a fresco of the 13th century, an iconographic calendar of months of the year, sacred paintings and graffiti made by prisoners at the end of '800. Outside, elements of the medieval fortress, as the ravelin with a machiculation, the remains of an ancient chapel, Ghibellines battlements and a Gothic octagonal rosette. Wonderful landscape you can admire from bastion.