Epigraph placed by Count Paolo Ruffo in memory of the restoration work on the Castle that he had carried out in 1543, following the purchase of the fiefdom of Scilla for thirty thousand ducats from Guttierre De Nava, which took place in 1533.
The white Carrara marble monument, located above the entrance gate and dating back to 1543, as indicated by the inscription in the margin of the epigraph, is set within a molded pink marble frame.
Its upper section features a relief of the coat of arms of the Ruffo di Calabria family, the future Princes of Scilla: a truncated shield with three points symbolizing the three hills that form the city of Catanzaro, the family's birthplace. It is adorned with three shells (symbol of pilgrims), recalling the participation of the family's knights in the first three crusades. The crest is an Aragonese princely. At the bottom of the stone document is an epigraph that recounts the story of the placing of the stone:
Ad fidelitatem Cesar
Servuntum
Paulus Rufus Sinopolis comes
Hanc arcem suo parta labore
Exedificavit et filys itide tuen
Dam reliquit anno MDXIII
