Castello di Petroro Drama Residence
The castle of Petroro stands perched on a hill not far from Todi, along the road that runs between Todi and Foligno. The coat of arms of the city of Todi was placed above the entrance into the castle in 1577. The millstone that today stands in the centre of the main square of Petroro is a reminder that the castle had its own olive press, which stood next to the community oven for baking bread and which was perfectly functional until very recently.
Written chronicles from the 7th and 8th centuries AD refer to a so-called gens Petreja, which would appear to indicate that this community existed at least as early as the Romans.
The castle itself is laid out in a plan typical of Medieval forts and contains traces of the Pauperes commilitones Christi templique Salomonis, better known as the Knights Templar, one of the most prominent orders of Christian knights during the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, during the Fourth Crusade, the Templars removed a great number of holy relics from the Holy Land in an attempt to safeguard them from destruction. These precious artefacts were transported by road, mostly along the Via Francigena and the other great consular roads that led from Rome towards other European nations, as written in the Chronica regia Coloniensis. It is documented that in 1204 the Templars brought to Petroro a fragment of the Holy Cross, which was on public display in the chapel of San Martino for two years. This fragment was in fact destined for the city of Paris but the Templars only took it as far as the monastery of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy.
The 1290 census lists the castle of Petroro as a castrum, effectively a fortified hamlet that defended the surrounding area. At this time there were sixty families living here, probably around 300 inhabitants in all, a number that determined the plan of the complex that we see today.
Today the castle houses the orthodox abbey of San Martino.
