Valsinni Castle was built shortly after the year 1000 on a pre-existing Longobard fortification. In his book Isabella Morra e Diego Sandoval de Castro, Benedetto Croce cites the origins of the manor, tracing them back to a Roman castrum placed to defend the last lock on the river Sinni, which from that point onwards opens towards the Ionian Sea. The castle owes its historical value and notoriety to the poetess who was born there, around 1520, and was killed there by her brothers at around 26 years of age when they discovered her affair with Diego Sandoval de Castro, Baron of Bollita.
The castle, together with the fief of Favale (today’s Valsinni), had come to the Morra family, a powerful family of Irpinian origin, through Menocca Vivacqua of Oriolo, at the beginning of the 16th century, and they were the feudal lords, with alternating vicissitudes, for about 140 years, until 1638. Since 1921, the castle has been owned by the Rinaldi family.