The Odescalchi castle dominates the tourist port of Santa Marinella and was built in the fifteenth century, incorporating the ancient cylindrical tower of the eleventh century that protected the town.
Around the year 1000 there was a center of devotion to the Christian martyr Santa Marina.
The ancient Punicum was located on this area in the Roman period and the castle was built partly above the villa of the famous writer Ulpiano, one of the 5 jurists to whom the judges had to refer in their verdicts. Ulpiano lived in the third century AD. C. and about a third of the Digest was taken from his books.
The castle was then fortified in the seventeenth century with the construction of bastions and three corner towers while the works of a large port, which was to support that of Civitavecchia, were never completed.
Many families succeeded in controlling the castle: the Prefects of Vico, the Anguillara, the Orsini and finally the Hospital of Santo Spirito.
Today it is private and belongs to the Odescalchi family.
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