Ducal Castle Museum of Corigliano Calabro

Originally built as a military fortress in 1073, the castle underwent a series of transformations over time. The Sanseverino princes, the Saluzzo dukes, and the Compagna barons altered and expanded the original structure to make it impregnable to enemy sieges and later adapted it as a noble residence.

Between 1487 and 1495 it became the seat of a military garrison, owned by the Royal Administration. From this period, commissioned by royal authority as attested by the stone inscription on the entrance facade, the construction of the towers on the corners of the quadrilateral, according to the cardinal points, is attributed. The work is probably attributable to Antonio Marchesi from Settignano, a student of Francesco di Giorgio Martini, the king’s military architect in Naples, known in courts throughout Europe.

Between 1515 and 1516, Count Bernardino Sanseverino promoted further modifications involving the following parts of the structure: the bastions, the towers, the dwelling, the defensive works, the moat, and the prisons.

Between 1650 and 1720, the Saluzzo dukes, the new owners, ordered the construction of the octagonal tower overlooking the keep, the Chapel of Saint Augustine, and the completion of the covering superstructures.

In 1828, the manor was purchased by Giuseppe Compagna. His second son Luigi commissioned the Florentine master Girolamo Varni to execute the frescoes on the dome vault of Saint Augustine and the raising of the keep tower; the Hall of Mirrors was entrusted to master Ignazio Perricci from Monopoli.

In 1872, the renowned 19th-century Neapolitan painter Domenico Morelli was commissioned to create the triptych depicting the Madonna of the Roses flanked by Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Augustine.

In 1971 Francesco Compagna sold the castle, for a symbolic price, to the Archiepiscopal Table of Rossano.

Finally, in 1979 it was purchased by the Municipality of Corigliano which, between 1988 and 2002, carried out the last restoration works.

Today the Ducal Castle of Corigliano Calabro is a museum where visitors can explore:

• The Mezzanine floor, housing the prisons, the 19th-century cast-iron kitchens, and the powder magazine;

• The Noble floor, where you can visit:

– the aristocratic rooms frescoed and furnished with period furniture;

– the dining room set with antique ceramics topped by a magnificent wrought iron chandelier;

– the Hall of Mirrors, named after the large mirrors hanging on the walls framed with gilded stucco decorations and flanked by precious brocades. The room is enhanced by Bohemian crystal chandeliers and a ceiling painted with trompe-l’oeil effects;

• The Keep tower, the castle’s original core, developed on five levels, four of which—connected by a cast-iron staircase built by Neapolitan masters—are entirely frescoed by the artist Girolamo Varni.

The visit offers a dive into the past.

The rooms, furnished with original furniture, recreate enchanting atmospheres of times long gone.