Rotecastello

Hamlet of the municipality of San Venanzo, Rotecastello is located at 358 m a.s.l. and about 3 km south-west from the capital of the Municipality, at short distance from the road that connects Marsciano, on the plain, to Monte Peglia passing through San Venanzo. The current population is 37 residents (Istat data, 2001). Village of probable Etruscan origin, the medieval structure is still in good condition. The toponym derives from the fortified structure in the shape of a wheel or circular, rota-castello, mentioned in the land register of 1292, well preserved. The main tower of the village, recently restored, and traces of the other six towers that constituted its defense are visible. Rotecastello, inhabited since the Etruscan times, became a fortified castle in the Middle Ages in the hands of a family of Ghibellines from Orvieto. From the end of the eighteenth century it was always linked to Orvieto who granted it the statutes of 1502, with which the community governed until when, with the State reform wanted by Pius VII, it passed under the government of San Venanzo. On the external facade of the parish church there is a majolica panel of the Deruta school dated 1586 depicting St. Michael the Archangel, while inside there are three paintings of the eighteenth century. The nearby church of the Madonna della neve contains a beautiful fresco from the late 1500s.
Festivity
First week of August: cultural event “August in the Middle Ages”, with a suggestive historical parade in medieval clothes, organized by the AMICI DI ROTECASTELLO Association.