Seventy castles from the most diverse eras and with the most varied characteristics. Illustrious ruins full of suggestions that characterize the land of Irpinia and contribute to its charm.

And Avellino too has its castle, reduced to a few walls, which nonetheless have many stories and a lot of history to tell. And, in fact, a delicate and complicated reconstructive restoration has been going on for some time, with the aim of recovering what is possible of a precious place of memory for the city. Of that memory it shares the difficult reconstruction of the origins, also from a chronological point of view, due to the darkness that still surrounds the foundation of the new Abellinum compared to the original one, where Atripalda stands today.

It has a unique peculiarity in Irpinia, and beyond, the castle of Avellino. It does not stand on a hill, in a strategic position capable of offering a broad 360-degree view of the surrounding area, but in the lower, even sunken, part of the city, between the Fenestrelle river and the now buried Rio San Francesco. Perhaps an obligatory location, which some historians have interpreted as proof that the castle would have been built to defend the settlement already present at the time on the "Terra" hill. The Castle would still date back to the Lombard period, probably to the 6th century, but other historians postpone the construction to the 8th and even the 10th century. In addition to being a military structure, it was also the residence of the stewards and feudal lords of the city from the beginning.

On 27 September 1130 the antipope Anacleto II crowned Roger the Norman king of Apulia and Sicily. Against this investiture, Pope Innocent II and the emperor Lothair stayed for a month in the castle to settle the matter, until they managed to deprive Roger of the title over Puglia to transfer it to Rainulfo, the then count of Avellino. In response, Roger attacked the castle in 1137, literally setting it on fire.

The fortress welcomed some emperors, such as Lothair I and Henry VI, and various Angevin and Aragonese sovereigns. In 1436, Alfonso I of Aragon besieged it, but then also renewed it. A moment of true splendor came when Maria de Cardona inherited the feud in 1513. A beautiful, rich and highly cultured woman, the countess gave great impetus to the commercial and economic activities of the city, which in that period experienced a significant demographic increase. And he did not neglect to embellish the castle, where he had his residence. And where it housed the cream of the culture of its time. Personalities such as Bernardo Tasso, Luigi Tansillo, Garcilaso de la Vega, Gutierrez de Cetina met in the castle.

In the seventeenth century, the towers and battlements were demolished and the typically military structure was modified, the castle was adapted to its by now prevalent residential function. The new feudal lords of Avellino, the Caracciolo princes, established their residence there and in 1615, Camillo Caracciolo used the adjacent land to make a magnificent garden full of plants, with a small lake. Under Marino II Caracciolo, from 1617 to 1630, Avellino experienced its golden age, but the castle, in evident decline and considered no longer worthy of the family residence, was abandoned in favor of the new Palazzo Caracciolo. From that moment the inexorable degradation began. It was then demolished at the beginning of the eighteenth century, during the War of the Spanish Succession. Therefore the 1980 earthquake did not cause damage to the structure, which was already in ruins. But the remaining walls have since then inspired various projects and interventions, still in progress, for the reconstruction.

In 1620, Prince Marino II Caracciolo had founded the Accademia dei Dogliosi, which included illustrious men of letters such as Giovan Battista Basile. The ancient academy still exists and deals with cultural events, artistic publications and restorations.