Malatesta fortresses and castles

39curtains, trapdoor, secret passageway, balcony, etc) needed tocreate the appropriate atmosphere for the tragedy of Francescaand her brother-in-law, which took place - if it took place at all -elsewhere. The whole setting is evidently late-Romantic, evendecadent, in taste; more suited to a magazine serial than to anyrespect for historic truth. Fortunately however, the castle itself ison the whole authentic, as are some of the fascinating Renaissancefrescos: see the Chamber of Lucrezia Borgia (who for some yearswas the wife of Giovanni Sforza), the Cherub Chamber, and theloggia, which also has some fragments of sculpture. The true charmof the construction lies, however, in its complexity: in its structuremade up of layer on layer; in its grandeur; in its relationship withthe fortified village and the surrounding countryside.Gradara, “laid out along the crest of the hill in a kind of armedand watchful idleness, like a wild beast at rest but ready to spring”(Luigi Michelini Tocci), looks towards the east and north, towardsthe sea and the Romagna region. Romagna begins in the plainimmediately beyond the Gabicce promontory, where standsCattolica, founded in 1273 between the Ventena and Tavollo riversalmost as if to replace the ancient - or rather legendary - sunkencity of Conca, and to create a visible boundary to the territory ofRimini. Gradara belongs equally to the Malatestas and Le Marche;it breathes the sea breezes and the last mists of the plain, wherere-echo the voices and music, where fade the colours and manners,of the great Courts of the north: Este, Gonzaga, Visconti. More thanin any other Malatesta castle, in Gradara the cruel and courtly windof Chivalry still blows, bringing remembrances of reckless, fearlessSigismondo and his last feats of daring before his decline.