Malatesta fortresses and castles

GradaraFortresspiazza Alberta Porta Nataletel. 0541 964181-964115fax 0541 823035www.gradara.orginfo@gradara.org• open all yearAbove: view of Montefiorevillage and the parish church,from the Fortress. Below,Gradara Fortress.36with a beautiful stone coat of arms complete with a crest, still inexistence, and with paintings still surviving, miraculously, in part.In the great “Chamber of the Emperor” (near which were to befound also a “Throne Room” and a “Hall of the Pope”) can be seena number of “portraits” of ancient heroes, and two fragmentarybattle scenes, frescos painted by Jacopo Avanzi in about 1370.These are the only surviving remains of decorative painting inprivate Malatesta family constructions. Frescos and paintings aredocumented in many other Malatesta castles and residences: inPesaro, Montelevecchie, San Costanzo di Fano, Brescia, Rimini,Gradara; but no trace remains of any of these. Before leavingMontefiore, notice the buildings which make a semicircle at the feetof the castle, and the parish church with a fine Gothic doorway anda Crucifix of the thirteenth-century Rimini school. Walled on thegateway to the village, to which was added a drawbridge in theMiddle Ages, is a stone tablet with the coats of arms of PopePiccolomini, Pius II, and of the Cardinal Legate Niccolò Forteguerri.This, the work of one Giacomo, a stone-cutter from Ferrara, wasplaced here in 1464 after the defeat of Sigismondo Malatesta, inplace of a Malatesta coat of arms.Gradara is another mighty fortress which served both as adefence and a sumptuous residence. Like Montefiore, it was anallodial possession of the Malatesta family – that is to say, aproperty bought by them, not held as a Papal concession. Toappreciate its defensive significance, it should be viewed inconnection with Rimini and as part of a system which included thefortresses of Gabicce, Casteldimezzo and Fiorenzuola on the cliffsalong the coast, and Tavullia inland. In 1364 Malatesta“Guastafamiglia” willed Montefiore and Gradara respectively tohis sons Malatesta Ungaro and Pandolfo. Pandolfo was a friend ofthe poet Petrarch and the father of Malatesta “of the sonnets”who died in Gradara castle in 1429. He is known to have beeninterested in painting as well as in poetry; he sent a painter toPetrarch to take his portrait secretly and recruited artists fromFlorence (among whom was the young Lorenzo Ghiberti) todecorate his residence in Pesaro. In all probability, the frescosdepicting heroes and battles of antiquity which documentaryevidence shows were painted both in Gradara castle and in thePesaro residence, were commissioned mainly by Pandolfo, andwere perhaps not so different from those commissioned by Ungarofor Montefiore.In the fortress of Gradara there are still fifteenth-century