Castles

Fortified burgh of S. Maria Oliveto    

Fortified burgh of S. Maria Oliveto

S.Maria Oliveto became a castrum after 1066, when the burgh was fortified by Abbot Giovanni (“circa ecclesiam S.Marie quod dicitur Oliveto assumens, castrum constituit in montem”) to defend it from the Norman forays on the Venafro plain. Twelve towers (one of them larger than the others) defended the settlement and the church. The Saracen gate (and perhaps also the large cistern) is all that remains of the original fortifications.