Main menu
Medieval Village.
The old hamlet of the Renaissance, located at the bottom of the Castle, has a quadrangular shape with a closed court. In the middle of this space there is the Church of Saint Pietro Apostolo and on the perimetral sides there are terraced buildings. The entryway is characterized by a entryway with a clock. Beneath the church square of there is the rest of a necropolis.
The Castle.
There is continuity between the gravine houses and the castle, whose construction probably started in the middle of the XVI c. by the Domini Roberti family to protect the hamlet of Palagianello was partially completed during the XVIII under the Caracciolo’s domain. The castle with its massive quadrangular shape, with four angled great towers and a central court, has all the defensive structural characteristics of a XVI c. pillbox. The actual entryway of the castle is on the south side while originally it was located in the west and was accessibly by a drawbridge situated on a fosse which is nowadays present and is along the full east side and a part of the north side. The drawbridge was substituted by a stonework-bridge with two arches. There is a big boardroom on the upper floor. In 1874 the old entryway was closed to obtain a chapel in honor of the Virgin of the seven pains, planned by the architect Gabriele Califano, under the commission of count Antonio Stella Caracciolo. The chapel was given in perpetuity usage by Count Caracciolo to the Addolorata confraternity.
From the Roberti domination to the Caracciolo one.
In the first twenties of the XVI c. the recolonization of an uninhabitated hamlet with a semi-destroyed tower that will be called Palagianello hamlet is due to the Domini Roberti family. The attorney of Badia of Cava dei Tirreni in his memories dated 1548 says that "Lo ditto Casale de Paliscianello have comenzato ad e(esse)r abitato da a(n)ni trenta in qua et per avente ditto Casale era deshahilato da ditto tempo in cqua ei fatto quasi tutto novo!"="The so called Palagianello hamlet was first uninhabitated up to 1530 and I rebuilt it since those years". When between the second half of the XV c. appears the toponym Palasanello, this means a territory with an uninhabitated hamlet.To testify this there is a document dated 1525 in which the baron Vincenzo Domini Roberti asked for a renovation of Palagianello hamlet from uninhabitated to inhabited. It is due to the Domini Roberti family the starting of the new hamlet, which is built over the medieval one as the building of the church of Saint Pietro and part of the court houses around the actual square Alcide de Gasperi that was used as a necropolis from the IX up to the XIV century. The vitality of the hamlet is also based on the recovery of the cave churches which were newly rehabilitated to the cult as it was done for the church of Saint Andrea where medieval paintings of the XII and XIII centuries are preserved besides a Saint Vito dated 1590. Another church that has been rehabilitated is Saint Maria delle Grazie or as the Palagianellesi say, the church of Madonna delle Grazie, belonging to Domini Roberti. Without referring to any source, Marco Lupo writes that the church of Madonna delle Grazie was excavated in the sand stone around 1607, when on the 13th of march, Giovanni Vincenzo Domini Roberti succeeded de facto and de jure his mother, Isabella Greco, for the Palagianello barony. The Domini Robertis restored a tower in ruins, which appears on a document dated 1482, when the restoration of the castle started, giving to the feudal families Domini Robertis, De Riberas and Caracciolos their sites. The castle was inhabited by count Antonio Rocco Stella, who was born Caracciolo di Santeramo, till 1950 when he died. Since 1979 the castle is part of the patrimony of Palagianello village.