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Castle · Avella (AV)

Castle of San Michele

  • Visit: about 1 h 15 min
  • 318 m
Castle of San Michele
Photo: Gianfranco Vitolo · CC BY 2.0 · resized

The Lombard castle of Avella, known as San Michele, with a cylindrical keep and two rings of walls on the hill above the Clanio.

On a hill of about 320 metres, on the right bank of the Clanio, lie the remains of Avella Castle, also called San Michele because the Lombards, who built it in the 7th century, dedicated it to the Archangel. Its position made it possible to control the border between the Duchy of Naples and the Principality of Capua and an important route between the Campanian plain and the Adriatic.The Normans rebuilt it in the 11th century with a keep and a second ring of walls; it then passed to the Orsini, Colonna and Spinelli families. The 15th-century earthquakes and the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631 marked its end, and many of its stones were used to build the new Avella. Today we suggest exploring the cylindrical keep, the trapezoidal courtyard and the large cistern between the two rings of walls.

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Events in Avella

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See all (4) →

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