Triponzo Castle – The fortress
To be visited
Localita: Cerreto di Spoleto
Triponzo is an ancient “castle” dating back to the 13th century with imposing fortifications, built on a travertine-limestone outcrop deeply carved by river waters, at 420 m.a.s.l. The village buildings are lined up along the sides of the ancient road coming from Cerreto, squeezed between the cliff and the river and dominated by the high 14th century square tower that emerges from the enclosing walls.
The name of the village probably derives from the presence of three bridges which were built at the confluence of the Corno and Nera rivers, flowing into each other right here.
In the period of the Medieval Communes the village was fiercely contested especially between Cerreto and Norcia, given its important strategic position.
Its structure as a hillock fortified hamlet, with the watchtower and the defensive keep at the top and the peasant houses enclosed between two gates at the bottom, has been profoundly altered by the opening of the Valnerina state road and the ensiung construction of numerous new buildings along it; moreover, the whole area was seriously damaged by the earthquakes of 1997 and 2016.
Before entering the village, right before the tunnel on the state road, a footpath branches off to the right and shortly leads to a large cliff, hand-carved in Roman times to make space for the ancient road, as a rock inscription recalls.
THE “SCOPPIO” INSCRIPTION
To get a good look at the Scoppio (from scopulus, meaning rock in Latin) inscription, nowadays located at eye level, it was once necessary to use ladders.
Up to the mid XIX century, in fact, the Via Nursina, connecting Norcia with Spoleto, was 220 cm lower than today; it ran close to the river on a narrow ledge for twenty centuries, up until the opening of the tunnel adjacent to it, in the second half of the XX century.
The inscription has been carved on a smooth rocky surface, larger than necessary, at the base of an artificial cut currently about 11 meters high and twice as wide.
The text reads:
C(aius) Pomponius C(ai) f(ilius) L(ucius) Octavius Cn(aei) f(ilius) q(uaestores) d(e) s(enatus) s(ententia), meaning:
“Caius Pomponius son of Caius and Lucius Octavius son of Cnaeus, quaestors (of Rome, built this) by decree of the (Roman) Senate”.
The work was done around 88 BC, during the social war. From the same period, or probably older, is the semi-tunnel which was carved into the vertical rocky cliff in the area called “Balza Tagliata”, upstream of Triponzo, thus allowing the Via Nursina to follow the Corno valley at river level.
BALZA TAGLIATA
The ancient "Via Nursina" passed through Triponzo and continued along the Corno valley, where the river has deeply eroded the Mesozoic limestone generating towering cliffs and evocative gorges; on the right side of the river rises a high series of rock walls and gullies creating a chasm about 730 meters deep.
The narrowest point of the gorge is called Balza Tagliata (Cut Crag); here, in fact, lies a surprising semi-tunnel from the pre-Roman era, chiselled into the rock in order to proceed along the Corno river, thus creating the only valley floor road linking Triponzo to Norcia.
In the same place, in recent times, a barrier was built for the collection of water which, through a couduit dug into the left wall of the overhang, was brought up to Terni where it was used for the operation of the steelworks.
Next to the entrance of the conduit there is a plaque commemorating the workers who died during the excavation works whom in those days, lacking any safety protection, were sadly numerous.
The Spoleto-Norcia railway also passed along the area of Balza Tagliata, crossing the gorge thanks to a tunnel dug into the rock.
For further information: https://www.iluoghidelsilenzio.it/castello-di-triponzo-cerreto-di-spoleto-pg/
