Castel Rinaldi
Of a significant monumental interest, this scenic village of Castel Rinaldi, a district of Massa Martana, was built, according to tradition, in 1161 by a man named “Rinaldo duke of Calabria” and it also was part of the Arnolfi Counts’ fiefdom. It was fortified probably among the XIV and the XV century.
A Guelph outpost, it was attacked by the Ghibellines from Todi who forced it to submission. It was erected in a low stability area, around the first half of the 1400 it was damaged by multiple landslides which significantly reduced the size of the castle, tearing down the apse of the church too.
Anyway even today it shows up as a massive and a huge medieval fort surrounded by mighty walls. To remedy the landslides recently it has been built a strong retaining wall. In the towers some loopholes and guns are open up, above the door two commemorative plaques of dead soldiers of the World Wars are walled and in the middle, in a niche, there is a modern statue of the Holy Virgin.
Along the way of the castle prevails the Fortress which, despite the tampering and various renovations, it preserves, enough visible, the features of an ancestral fortified manor house. In a living room inside it is preserved a fireplace of the Fourteenth century.