First the Samnites (Unknown - 100 BC), then the Romans (100 BC - 476 AD), the Goths (535), followed by the Lombards (572-774), the Saracens, the Byzantines, and finally the Normans who's arrival and conquest came in the early 11th century. With the Normans came wealth to the region and under Count Ugo II de Molisio (1045), the region became the strongest continental state of the Norman monarchy. The Molisio dynasty gave its name to the region.
Castelbottaccio, located between the Apennine mountains and the Adriatic Sea, sits perched on a hill on the North side of the Biferno river in the beautiful region of Molise, Italy. From that location, you can enjoy the views over the whole Biferno Valley to the Adriatic Sea, an area that is rich in history. History tells us that in 1078, it was the Normans that built the castle complete with a drawbridge, moat and fortification walls. The castle was then later then converted into a noble residence now known as the Palazzo Baronale. Documents date the church Santa Maria delle Grazie, the towns main church which is still in use today, was built in the year 1178.
During the Cardone fiefdom in the 18th century, Francesco Cardone married a noblewoman Olimpia Frangipane (daughter of the Duke of Mirabello) in 1781. She was quite a woman of society, she would welcome politicians and scholars of the time into her palace (Palazzo Baronale), attracting criticism from conservatives who saw in that cultural circle a den of conspirators because they yearned for the renewal of society. Her role in history has inspired the women of Castelbottaccio and is remembered year round with the Cultural Association Circolo neo illuminista Donna Olimpia Frangipane
Tragedy struck with the great earthquake of 1456 that, with a magnitude of 7.1, completly leveling the entire south central region of Italy, resulting in the inhabiants abandoning the village for a number of years. In the 1805 there was another tremendous earthquake: the Santa Maria delle Grazie church and belltower were destroyed, but the people were resilent and rebuilt it from the ground up. The fortification walls and two medieval gates of the village were demolished leaving open entry to the village. In modern times you can still see parts of the turrets of the fortification walls as they have been intergrated into homes.
Little is known about the etymology of the name: according to some it derives from the Arabic word "Kalaat" that is "fortress". According to this hypothesis, the town would have derived from a Saracen colony or would recall some important event that occurred during the raids of the Arabs, which took place between the 9th and 11th centuries. However, the name has undergone various transformations: in various historical documents it is reported with different forms: "Calcabuczam" "Caccabuchacium", "Castrum Carcabutacij", "Carcabottaccio", "Calcabovazzo", up to its present form.
Arnaldo De Lisio (December 9, 1869 – March 5, 1949) was born in Castelbottaccio. His style was influenced by the works of Domenico Morelli, Ignazio Perrici, and Gioacchino Toma. He traveled to Paris with Pietro Scoppetta and Ragione at the turn of the century, where he was influenced by Impressionism and completed colorful paintings of urban vistas. He returned to Italy and painted also portraitist and genre scenes. He painted frescoes for the Banca d'Italia and Istituto Pilla of Campobasso, for the Santuario Maria Santissima di Campiglione in the town of Caivano in 1938, and the ceiling of the Teatro Savoia in Campobasso.
In 1132 the first lord of Castelbottaccio is Manfredo Marchisio, who was succeeded by his son Ugone and in 1178 by his nephew Ragone Marchisio. It must be said that the Marchisio family were none other than the Luparia (Lupara, the next village over), Marchisio being the lord of the Marca, as also specified in the monograph of Lupara.
In the Angevin period, under Robert of Anjou, the fiefdom was held by the Di Sangro family, who was its caretaker until 1465, when it was deprived of it for felony towards Ferrante I of Aragon.
Castebottaccio, devolved to the state property, was given as a fief in 1477 to Luigi Gesualdo Count of Conza, a family deriving from the offspring of a Norman king.
The Count of Conza, in 1495, having sided with Charles VIII was declared a rebel and deprived of the fief, who returned again to the Royal Court, which on 10 May 1498 gave it as a fief to the Gran Capitano Ferrante Consalvo of Cordova, who, in 1507 he was recalled to Spain, so all his fiefs were confiscated by the Real Fisco and put up for sale.
Castelbottaccio was awarded to one of the di Sangro. In 1560 heirs of the fiefdom were Vittoria and Lucrezia di Sangro, nuns of the Croce di Lucca in Naples, and daughters of Adriana Tomasello, to whom they donated the fief.
Adriana Tomasello belonged to the Capece family and passed in second marriage to Alfonso Piscitelli, with whom she had a son, Gianfrancesco. Adriana died in 1569, leaving her son Gianfrancesco Piscitelli heir who established the lordship in Castelbottaccio. The last of the Piscitelli lineage was Gianfrancesco junior who died in 1646, leaving his nephew Berardino, indebted and then at the request of his creditors, the fiefdom was auctioned by the Royal Court and was awarded to Giambattista Ferri, in 1655.
The Ferri and their descendants held the fief until the beginning of the eighteenth century, when they sold it to the Cardone. Domenico Cardone, coming from Atessa in Abruzzo, was a utilist of Archi and Fara and kept Castelbottaccio in his name in 1725. This family must be distinguished from the Cardona family, of Catalan origin.
Domenico was succeeded by Nicola, lord from 1731 to 1740 and Francesco who, at the age of 46, married Olimpia Frangipane, daughter of the Duke of Mirabello, 20 years younger than him. From the marriage of Francesco with Olimpia eight daughters were born, of which Matilde was the wife of Michele Cuoco, brother of the more famous Vincenzo.
Donna Olimpia Frangipane held a famous cultural salon in Castelbottaccio, frequented by the most illustrious names of the Molise aristocracy and beyond. Sitting room held at bay by the Bourbon police because they were suspected of Jacobinism, so some of the participants ended up at the guillotine in Piazza Mercato in Naples.
Francesco Cardone died heartily in Naples on July 3rd 1810 and in 1830 Frangipane also died in Naples, in the house of the baron of S. Biase Gennaro de Blasiis, his relative with whom he lived.
The Cardone were the last owners of Castelbottaccio.
Sourced from: Ugodugo.it