The lack of a specific study concerning the remains of the Castle of Pietrapaola has created a big gap around the origins of the Castrum, which, owing to its geographical position, must have played a remarkable role in the defence of the surrounding territory.
Nothing is known regarding the Norman-Swabian period; since 1269, the year of the domination by the Frenchman Elia di Ganz, the countryside seems gradually to become populated, probably because of forestry and cattle-farming which could be carried out in the large state owned areas, the so called Difese, consisting of oak and chestnut trees, where excellent horses and oxen were bred for the rural activities of the time.
Some tax registers of the Royal Court show that Pietrapaola was, since 1300, a village of remarkable economic relevance: it seems, in fact, that the particular features of its territory favoured commerce in some very important sectors of handicraft, such as woollen textiles, cask staves, packsaddles.
In chronological order the feudatories of Pietrapaola were the Britti family (1413), Diego Cavaniglia (1480), Ferrante d'Aragona, Ruffo di Licodia, Mandatoriccio of Rossano and Sambiase from Cosenza, the latest registered holders.
The baronial palace, rising in the locality of Rio, had replaced the very ancient castle, probably destroyed during the Turkish raid of Bechin Bassà in 1644, as attested by an epigraph close to the Parish Church.
Among the feudal properties owned by the Baron in the territory of Pietrapaola were the Bagliva, the Dogana, the Castellania, the Catapania which were usually let for 110 ducats; the Mint (la Zecca) and Portolania were let out on contract to the Università (the present town council) for 3 ducats; the Fida dei Capitoli, which was paid for by the Università, so that citizen might be able to throw their rubbish out onto the streets without incurring punishment by the Court.
The baronial Chamber still enjoyed the civil and criminal Mastroddatia on first and second grade, including the mastroddatia of the Bagliva. The rent of mills for grinding cereals was, as a habit, paid for with corn. The feudatory would resort to the same payment in kind when he rented out basins for silk processing and the use of the varchiera.
Mules and horses of the Sambiase breed were quite famous in the 18th century; they were raised in the territory of Pietrapaola, in the Defences of Serino, Malalbergo, Orgia and S. Elia. Brigandage destroyed them during the French decade.
Worth of a more profound study are the many excavations spread all over the territory, particularly those around the castle, where a passage is supposed to exist , leading to inside a cave, which was the only possible way to get to the top of the citadel, during the times when the Castrum was in full activity.
Throughout the period of southern brigandage, from 1799 to 1865, Pietrapaola played its role, on both sides; the resoluteness and lack of understanding of the French military authorities were no doubt at the origin of this phenomenon , especially if we consider the evils that came from the abolition of local courts, where minor crimes such as thefts, quarrels and other kinds of mischief were paternally' settled.
The plateau of the Great Walls (405 Mt. a.s.l.), 3 km north-west of Pietrapaola town centre, rises in panoramic position overlooking the Ionian coastline between Capo Trionto and Punta Fiume Nicà. It is reached from the station junction of Pietrapaola following the S. S. 106 for 6 km and then taking the mule track going up north-west at the small bridge. Along the rocky spur flanking the plateau on the north and north-western side, is a stretch of boundary walls, at present 450 Mt. long, made of local concrete polygonal blocks forming a double dry face (average height from the ground 3 Mt.). On the north-eastern side of the circuit, is a corridor of 15 Mt., next to an ancient entrance from the coast which, was blocked by a series of masses of stone near the gate. At the south-eastern end of the spur, the base of a quadrangular tower can still be seen, whose purpose seems to have been to watch over the southern coastal stretch.
According to the latest reconnaissance (1984), we can conjecture the existence of a protecting wall stretching for a total length of 1.5 km, delimiting a wide flat area (about 45 hectares), divided by a small central valley, as at Castiglione of Paludi. The archaeological findings that have been brought to light inside the boundary walls seem to testify the frequentation of the site during the 3rd century BC.
The lack of a specific study concerning the remains of the Castle of Pietrapaola has created a big gap around the origins of the Castrum, which, owing to its geographical position, must have played a remarkable role in the defence of the surrounding territory.
