Vicalvi Castle: History, Architecture and the Legend of the Ghost
The name Vicalvi originates from the medieval place name “vicus albus”, white village, probably due to the local white limestone that gave the settlement its white colour. The village and castle were built during the 10th century on the same site as an ancient pre-Roman settlement of the Volscians and Samnites (7th-4th centuries BC), which were replaced by a Roman acropolis during the 3rd century BC.
In fact, according to the scholar M. Rizzello, the Volscian and Samnite nucleus was overlaid by a Roman village that colonised the plain below, which today belongs to the municipalities of Vicalvi, Alvito and Casalvieri. In the plain itself, an important sanctuary of the Italic goddess Mephitis, a divinity linked to the cult of springs, existed since the 7th century B.C., which was transformed into a thermal centre by the Romans during the 1st century B.C., precisely because of the presence of spring waters: that of Pescarola.
The first substantiated reports on the medieval village of Vicalvi, date back to the 10th century. At that time, the village was the domain of the Lombards of the principality of Capua, who had a Gastaldo (feudal lord) there. The Longobard castle therefore dates back to this period in its first nucleus. Its plan is polygonal and it is surrounded by a double defensive wall. The reason for its construction is the presence of the Saracens, from whom the inhabitants defended themselves by building several manors in the area. From the walkway of the perimeter walls, it is possible to gaze over the entire Comino Valley and part of the Liri ValleyThe place was certainly chosen because of its strategic location, which allowed easy control of the region and the routes linking Latium to Abruzzo and Campania.
The Evolution of the Manor: from the Monks to the Cantelmo Nobles
The Manor is organised around a large inner courtyard that distributes and gives light to the various rooms, once characterised by the presence of frescoes. The Castle Chapel, in particular, still shows traces of a Black Madonna. In the large hall are traces of several fireplaces that were used to heat the most important room in the complex. As early as 1017, the Castle and its possessions came into the possession of the Montecassino monks, who held them until the 13th century, when they passed to the D'Aquino family, who reinforced the castle's defensive system.
In the 14th century, the castle passed to the Etendards, who renovated it in Gothic forms after the earthquake of 1349. Soon afterwards, it was in the possession of the Cantelmo family, who further fortified it in the 16th century with the construction of the large tower to the east and the mighty sloping escarpment, designed for defence against the firearms introduced in the second half of the 14th century. After these works the Vicalvi Castle began its decline as the Cantelmo family chose the nearby Alvito Castle as its main residence. At the end of the 18th century, in fact, local chronicles report its complete abandonment.
THE PHANTOM
Also the Vicalvi Castle, like every castle, has its ghost. In the 15th century. under the Aragonese rule of Naples, the castle was inhabited by a Spanish nobleman and his wife Alejandra Maddaloni. The young nobleman was engaged in the war against the Angevins and was therefore always far from Vicalvi. To console herself, the beautiful castellan took to luring young men from the surrounding area with the promise of a night of passion. The next day, in order to eliminate all traces of the betrayal, with the help of one of her servants, she killed them by throwing them off the walls of the manor and had them hide in the Vicalvi countryside.
Around the castle, however, some horribly mangled young men were found and rumours of Alejandra's misdeeds began to circulate. On her return, her husband became aware of the facts. He therefore had his young wife chained up and locked in the tower where she was then walled up alive. Since then, there have been numerous accounts over the centuries of the apparition of a spectral figure, with long, black hair, of unspeakable beauty, who wanders around the Manor at night, preceded by the clanking of chains. She lures the young men who approach the castle to her even today, giving them a night of love, but then causing them to fall from the walls of the fortress. This legend has been fuelled over time by the discovery of several bodies of young people plunged from the top of the walls. These may have been suicides, but the voices of the villagers have always blamed the young castellan.