duchy · Italy

Duchy of Castro

1537 CE – 1649 CE · capital Castro

A Farnese duchy in northern Lazio created by Pope Paul III for his son, whose capital was razed by a later pope in 1649.

Origins

In 1537 Pope Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese, carved the Duchy of Castro out of the Papal States for his son Pier Luigi Farnese. It covered the old Farnese estates between Lake Bolsena and the Tyrrhenian coast.

Rule and society

Castro was rebuilt as a small Renaissance capital, with buildings by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. After 1545 its dukes were also dukes of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, and they ran Castro from afar, borrowing heavily against it. A quarrel over these debts and the Farnese's power led Pope Urban VIII to fight the First War of Castro in 1641–1644, which ended in a papal setback.

Decline and legacy

In 1649, after the murder of the new bishop of Castro was blamed on the Farnese, Pope Innocent X's troops took the town and razed it to the ground. The duchy was absorbed into the Papal States.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Duchy of Castro. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-castro
MLA
“Duchy of Castro.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-castro. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Duchy of Castro.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-castro.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Duchy of Castro’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-castro (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻