Italy, Terelle

Terelle developed from the early twelfth century around the castle that Count Landolfo Aquinas built on Mount Cairo to oversee the Abbey of Montecassino which at that time was in a period of of weakness. In 1138 the castle was destroyed by the troops of Cassinesi and then rebuilt in 1190. It was still the focus of the struggle between the Papacy and the Empire in 1199 when it was burned by German troops in the wake of the Emperor Henry VI. During the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries the area has seen the phenomenon of banditry but its location away from the main roads has preserved it from conflicts and wars. During the Second World War it was destroyed by Allied bombing, as it was found on the German defensive front, the Gustav line. Over the centuries it has been repeatedly hit by earthquakes, the last took place in 1984, so it retains few traces of the past.