La villa e il castello di Solfagnano: analisi archeologica degli elevati (secoli XIII-XXI)

This contribution presents the results of architectural surveys conducted in villa Bennicelli and in the castle of Solfagnano (current village). The survey goes from written to iconographic sources and culminates in the stratigraphic analysis of surviving architecture. The castle is currently in a partially abandoned state. So it was decided to provide a fact-finding contribution to valorise and preserve that architectural complex, in an archaeological survey. More generally, this study offers new elements so we can understand the dynamics and types of settlements found in Umbria as of the Middle Ages. The results describe a situation divided into three distinct, yet coeval, entities: 1) the castle (which has changed considerably over the years and now looks like a fortified village); 2) the fortified company on Colle Marinello (a building complex with only the palace remaining), 3) the San Silvestro settlement, in which we can recognise a church, a bell tower and the remains of some military structures. These sites are the three monumental intersections of the rural settlement of Solfagnano, which also has small houses, spread throughout the area, where families who worked the land lived. The first part describes the bodies of buildings forming the two architectural complexes (villa and castle). This is followed by a part dedicated to instruments and methods used to conduct the surveys. The paper ends with an interpretative summary of the changes affecting the settlements, in the light of all data collected.