Pietraperzia
The castle at Pietraperzia would appear to be another Byzantine ridge site, of
which the major ones are listed under Aci castle. In the Book
of Roger of 1154, the Castle Barresio di Pietraperzia was described as
‘a sturdy castle and a solid fortress'. Around 1200
the lordship was given to the Barresi family by Pope Innocent III
(d.1218), when he was regent of the kingdom for Frederick II
(d.1250). In 1296 Petrapertia was held from Frederick III (d.1337) by Abbate Barresi. Barresi rebelled on the king's seizure of Caltabellotta
after his coronation. This powerful castle then held out against
the Crown for 3 years, before being forced to surrender on the terms of
simply returning to the king's fealty. Abbate was still holding it in the late 1320s. The last of the main line
of the Barresis died out in 1571 and the castle passed to a nephew, the
son of Prince Braciforte. He seems to have equipped the castle
with large cannons and ravelins. As the castle was abandoned
the armoury was transferred to Agrigento museum, but the armour
and weapons were looted by rioters in 1820.
Description
The Byzantine fortress occupies a normal position for such castles, the
edge of a rocky limestone cliff overlooking the town to the
southeast. Once more it is long and narrow, but on a massive
scale,
being some 360' long by 100' wide at its extremities. The
heart of the castle is a great oblong keep, about 100' long by 40'
wide. This is comparable to the fascinating great keep at
Chepstow in Wales. At
Pietraperzia the tower is much ruined,
but the south wall still stands 40' high and has a fine batter to the
west. The structure is rubble built with fine quoining at the
corners and stands on a rock cut platform. The east wall of
the structure makes up the enceinte, but a lower ward exists to the
south and west which has 2 small round towers in its right angled
enceinte. This work would appear to be a Norman addition to
the earlier keep.
Northeast of the keep is the main ward. This is probably somewhat
later than the tower. It consists of a nearly rectangular
polygonal ward and marks the probable original entrance to the
fortress. This was covered by a rhomboid shaped tower to the
northeast which projects boldly over the rock face. Within the
ward
was a chapel with an ancient nave that was once embellished with
frescoes and a painting of the Madonna. There was also a hall
and an armoury. Much of the masonry of this lower ward is
built in well laid rubble with much sandstone intermixed with the
limestone. Here and there are much later ashlar additions.
Northeast of the main ward was a large rectangular building, 65' long and 40'
wide. This building, and the smaller one to the southwest which
continues from it, have large windows servicing the 3 storeys that
overlooked the cliff face. Much of this wall to the south
collapsed around the turn of the last century, presumably in the
earthquake of 1908. Northeast of the building is a powerful rhomboid
tower of 3 storeys. This seems to have a polygonal stair
turret at its eternal north corner as well as a powerful stepped
batter. It somewhat resembles the watchtower at Bamborough in
Northumberland.
Why not join me at other Sicilian
castles? Information on this and other tours can be found at Scholarly
Sojourns.
Copyright©2019
Paul Martin Remfry