Santa Severa Castle (Italy)

The castle stands on the site of Pyrgi, the port city connected to the ancient Caere, now Cerveteri founded between the late seventh and early sixth century BC. The Etruscan town of Pyrgi sviluppavava you all around the harbor for an extension of about 10 hectares, including over the area now occupied by the fortified village also the sanctuary area at the southern end, excavated by the Institute of Etruscologia University la Sapienza of Rome for over fifty years.

During the course of the third century BC with the Romanization of the coastal territory, part of the Etruscan settlement was founded the Roman fort of Pyrgi, surrounded by massive polygonal walls. The site was probably inhabited without interruption until late antiquity (IV-V cent. A.D.) and it is thanks to the continuity of life on the ruins of the castrum in the Middle Ages formed the village known as Castellum Sanctae Severae.

Castle real was built in the fourteenth century and the village was formed as with various construction phases during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Over the centuries the ownership of the castle passed through various owners until in 1482 came under the ownership of the Order of the Holy Spirit and remained there for five hundred years until 1980. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was also a resting place and living room of many popes, among them Gregory XIII, Sixtus V and Urban VIII. After a heyday walked right in the seventeenth century, the Castle has lived a long and slow decline. In 1943 it was used by the Germans as a strategic military post. Today the ownership of the complex belongs to the Lazio Region which has entrusted the management to the City of Santa Marinella.