The Pallotta family castle – Castello Pallotta – looks out over Caldarola, making it a fairytale setting. The existing ninth century castle was totally rebuilt towards the end of the sixteenth century, when Cardinal Evangelista Pallotta decided to transform it into a majestic, yet harmonious, Renaissance summer residence. The ancient castle walls are still intact, as are its Guelph crenellations, battlements and drawbridge.
The visit takes you through the historic building, from the ground floor to the piano nobile (main residential area) where every piece of furniture and every ornament is placed in its original context with great attention to detail.
The residence contains sixteenth and seventeenth century furnishings, together with original upholstery and hangings. It is also possible to visit the ancient kitchen, with its traditional copper cookware and ceramic and terracotta tableware, the reception hall, the elegant bedchamber, the dining room with its fine collection of eighteenth century majolica and, finally, the exquisite yellow room with its frieze attributed to Simone De Magistris, Caldarola’s great mannerist painter.
There is also a notable collection of carriages and tack along with one of antique religious artefacts.