Castello Di Montebello

From the height of its 436 meters, Montebello (fraction of Torriana, Rimini) dominates the Marecchia and Uso valley, offering its visitor a fascinating panorama.

Its powerful Rocca has a thousand years of history to tell: it was not by chance placed to guard a street, the one that goes up the Valmarecchia of great strategic value since it represented the main connection with Montefeltro and Tuscany, and undoubtedly represents one of the most interesting historical buildings of the Magnoria Malatesta in the entire Romagna territory.

There are 3 different historical periods enclosed inside.
After the Romans, we lose track of Montebello until the year 1186. In that year the family Maltalone sold Montebello to the Malatesta family. The Malatestas built the Medieval Fortress on Montebello which included three external wall rings, walk on both sides and the hexagonal main tower.
In 1460 Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta ruled the family, he was a brave soldier and a skillful politician, but he had become a matter of concern for all the other families which allied themselves with the Pope. He was finally defeated in 1462 and all his territories were taken away (except Rimini) and distributed to the other families.
In 1464 Montebello was given to the family Guidi who are still the owners of Montebello. They decided to transform part of the castle in a more comfortable Renaissance villa adding wider rooms and lots of furniture. The family left Montebello in 1797 when they took refuge in Rome before Napoleon's arrival, but before leaving the castle they hid all the precious pieces of furniture in underground tunnels.
The castle was abandoned until the 2nd World War when it became a German outpost and was heavily bombed by the allies which destroyed parts of the upper floors of the castle. Luckily, the Guidis decided to refurbish the whole castle in the 60's and it was opened to public in 1989.
Inside the castle you can see some of the furniture found in the underground tunnels. It's very rare to have such a large collection of original pieces which are dated between the 13" and 18 centuries.
The first room on the left has a wonderful archway overlooking the courtyard (see photo) and the first thing people will notice is that it has a slight slope to it. Montebello didn't have water, it was impossible to build a well as it is on hard rock so, in the past, they would collect the water from the roof through the window, letting it flow through some tanks positioned in this room in order to purify it before finally being collected in a big tank in the courtyard
There are some sofas and armchairs dating back to the 17 century. Sofas were used by women and built so they could just lean on the edge because of their wide dresses and small height.
One of the two safes of Montebello. It dates back to the 16 century, it's made of wood and covered in iron slabs outside, but it's special because it has 5 locks. The Lord of the castle would keep one of the keys and give the other 4 to trusted people outside of the castle. Only when all 5 were present in the castle the safe could be opened. This is still a system used in banks! The window of this room shows how wide the walls of the castle are reaching 1.90 m and a beautiful view on San Marino.
The other safe dating back to the 18 century and weighs about 1200Kgs. It was probably built here and never moved. This one has a much more complicated lock hidden under one of the studs that cover it. There are small trunks dating back to the 14 century and they were used by women to carry their dowry.
The main room of the castle, the banqueting hall. In the past musicians, singers and other artists would entertain guests from the wooden balcony. Guests would sit around the table, called "bat-table" for its lateral wings which allowed to enlarge the table when needed. If you look under the table, you'll notice a hole in which they would place a brazier full of hot ashes to keep both the guests and the food warm. As there are no fireplaces in Montebello.
The sideboard dates back the 16th century and it's a unique piece of furniture. In Italian it's called "credenza" and this comes from the Italian verb "credere" which means "to believe/to trust". The Lord of the castle had a servant called
"credenziere" who would place all the trays with food on the sideboard and taste them in front of the guests, then the Lord of the castle would say: "I have served you with a credenza ceremony". In a nutshell: "you can trust me; the food is not poisoned"!
Upstairs:An ancient chapel which was partly destroyed by the bombing of the Second World War; you can still see part of the altar and in the centre a Virgin Mary with Child.

Before entering the ancient fortress, you will walk in front of the Guidis coat of arms: a Saxon cross colored in light blue and yellow. Blue symbolizes power, the Guidis were as powerful as the blue of the sky: yellow symbolizes wealth and prosperity.

The Medieval Fortress was built to keep enemy soldiers out, so it's full of little traps which worked as an alarm system. The first are the stairs, the corridor allows only one person at a time to go through and the steps have different heights. If you imagine the ancient soldiers dressed in metal armours and heavy weapons, running towards the main hexagonal tower, you can also imagine how easily they could trip over and fall, making a lot of noise.
The next trap is the little door, it was built with a sort of optical illusion so if you look at it from the steps it looks a normal door but it's only 1.60m so soldiers would either bang their head or lean down showing their neck, which was the only part of their body not protected by metal.

The hexagonal tower room is accessed by a very challenging staircase, not only the steps here have different heights but they are also sloped outwards.
There is a collection of dowry trunks dated between the 14th & 17th century. The oldest one has a rounded shape because if it fell in water, it would float and be easily saved. They were usually waterproof inside so nothing would get wet. In the past, only if the dowry was in good condition the girl could marry, otherwise she was sent back to her family to become a nun. A green trunk belonged to Teodera Gonzaga and since her family was very rich and powerful, this trunk is covered in silk and has gold locks.

The hole in the floor is above the main entrance and it was used as a "murder hole" (see photo). In Medieval times they would pour from this hole a lethal boiling sticky ball made of quicklime, resin and tar. It would stick the metal armours causing great pain and death to the enemy soldiers. Everyone knew this could happen, so they carried little daggers to end their suffering.

The oven (looked like a pizza oven) is probably Roman and it's special because it hasn't got a chimney. The smoke would go out of the windows, as there was no glass, but also be absorbed by the special rock around the oven.

Azzurrina's room: The castle of Montebello is also the background to a Medieval legend.
The legend says that on the 21" June 1375 a little girl called Guendalina who lived in the castle disappeared. Guendalina was affected by albinism and for that period we can imagine how dangerous it could have been for her: she could have been burned as a witch. Her parents knew this and wanted to keep her safe in Montebello, they would dye her hair with herbs but the result was a light blue color, so her nickname became "Azzurrina" (Light Blue).
On the 21 June 1375, summer solstice, she was playing with a ball made of cloth while two soldiers were keeping an eye on her, suddenly the ball rolled down the steps going to the ice-house, a sort of Medieval cave where they would store food in the winter. Azzurrina went to fetch her ball and suddenly screamed, the two soldiers run down to check on her but she had disappeared together with her ball.
This story was told by the people of the village until a priest wrote it down in the 17° century, adding an extra detail: the people who lived in the castle would hear Azzurina's voice every lustrum, the equivalent of 5 years, from her disappearance.
When the castle of Montebello was opened to public, some technicians started recording in this room the sounds for the whole night of the 21st June every 5 years. We have 5 recordings of "anomalies" to let you listen. The biggest peculiarity of these sounds is that the little voice corresponds to the one of a child aged between 5 and 9 and it is always on the same frequency, it hasn't changed.
The prison -The Lord of Montebello didn't have the right to sentence prisoners to death, he could only put them in prison for one month. But he would put them in this small cubicle naked, on their knees, tied up with a chain from their neck to their feet, fed with just bread and water once a day. They usually committed suicide after a few days.Read more