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The Castle presents itself as a fortified village - with its watchtowers, moat and enclosure wall – clearly testifying to its medieval origin. In
1254, it was originally listed as one of the properties belonging to the
Nobles Normanni Alberteschi, but was first passed on to the
Anguillara Family, then to the Massimo, and finally, in the 17th century, it can be found as part of the
Peretti Estate. At the beginning of the 17th century, Prince
Michele Peretti, nephew of Pope Sixtus the Fifth, turned the place into a great and imposing courtly residence. The Castle became the setting of magnificent banquets and hunting parties, while multicolored peacocks roamed through archeological ruins and juniper trees. But the family estate was soon run dry by this extravagant way of life and so, in 1639, the estate and the castle were sold to one of the wealthiest Roman families of the Baroque Era, the Princes Falconieri. They commissioned two of the time’s greatest artists to refurbish Torre in Pietra.
Architect Ferdinando Fuga – who built the small octagonal
church and the elegant staircase
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that
leads to the first floor
(“piano nobile”) and that could also board horses – and the painter
Pier Leone Ghezzi, who was assigned with the decoration of the
Interiors. The castle, as it presents itself to us today, is how it was at the time of the
Falconieri Family. The frescoes are perfectly preserved: we can still witness the celebrations that took place during the
1725 Jubilee Year, when Alessandro Falconieri commissioned Ghezzi to decorate the first floor with scenes depicting
Pope Benedict the Thirteenth’s visit to the castle. He also frescoed the side altar walls of the beautiful octagonal
church. During the second half of the 19th century, the Falconieri Family dies out and for Torre in Pietra it’s the beginning of a period of decline. But in 1926,
Senator Luigi Albertini bought the property with his son Leonardo and son-in-law
Nicoḷ Carandini, and started the land reclamation work of the agricultural estate that was
famous at the time and a model for the rest of Europe, and the restoration of the castle, church and village. |
