centro storico, difensivo, collinare, Brancaleone Superiore, Brancaleone Vecchia (denominazione gergale), Brancaleone (denominazione storica, XVIII sec.), Sperlinga (denominazione originaria, V sec.), Sperlonga (denominazione originaria, V sec.)

On a hill above the Fiumarella riverbed, the old centre of Brancaleone Superiore, also known historically as Sperlinga or Sperlonga, lies in a state of ruin that makes its original extent impossible to determine. Yet the terrain and surviving traces suggest a centripetal urban layout: clusters of dwellings pressed tightly around a more substantial central structure. The buildings were of continuous masonry, their walls still hinting at the original plan.

The settlement developed in two nuclei. The first clustered around the vanished Chiesa Matrice dell’Addolorata, hard against the rock of a 15th-century castle. The second, perhaps arising after the Arab defeat when the castle lost its defensive purpose, grew further south near the Chiesa Arcipretale dell’Annunziata. That church was rebuilt in the 1930s, but inside survives a precious 16th-century polychrome marble altar.

Geologically, this is a hill of fine-to-medium quartzose sandstones, unfossiliferous, often fractured but resistant to erosion. The rock is permeable, and the whole place feels like a stone slowly giving up its stories.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.