Middle Ages and Renaissance Museum

the Middle Ages and Renaissance Museum of Sorano is set up in seven rooms inside the private rooms of the residence Orsini and exposes approximately ninety pieces of pottery of medieval and renaissance coming from all over the territory: this is bowls, flasks of perfume, jugs, pitali panatelle, to preserve the stale bread. Among the pottery, are to report some glazed dating from the middle of the sixteenth to the end of the XVIII century and found in the so-called Butti, wells of Medieval Sorano in which were discarded objects Broken or unusable: were brought to light an interesting set of dishes from engagement and a dish in which is shown the crowned eagle, coat of arms of Elena Accounts From Montelanico, wife of Niccolò III Orsini. In addition to the precious ceramics, the museum illustrates through didactic panels, reconstructions and ancient maps, the development of the territory soranese, from the capital to the fractions; among the ancient documentation of exposed stand out the three codes of Sorano and Castell'Ottieri.

From the museum can be accessed to the octagonal tower that rises on the western side of the residence and it reaches the private room of Nicholas IV Orsini, where it says that the count would be accepted in secret and virgins, prestigious frescoed with grotesques: on the walls are shown two birds - a parrot and a hummingbird - and two mythological scenes, the first that represents the suicide of Dido and second, difficult interpretation which could represent another episode always derived from the Aeneid. However, the fresco more interesting is surely the score - with notes and text - of an ancient madrigal painted in a corner near one of the windows: it is the song I am young girl, sung by Neifile at the end of the ninth day of the Decameron by Boccaccio, and put to music in 1542 by the bolognese musician Domenico Maria Ferrabosco. The fresco in question is datable between 1540 and 1560.

It is also possible to continue the visit of the Orsini Fortress by booking a guided visit at the theme park of the Etruscans on the ground floor of the central donjon, to underground trenches that linked the donjon with two bastions.