{"id":1452,"date":"2026-06-24T07:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/?page_id=1452"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T17:01:19","slug":"i-ruffo-di-calabria","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/castello-ruffo-di-scilla\/i-ruffo-di-calabria\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ruffo di Calabria"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ruffo di Calabria, one of the most prominent noble families of the Italian aristocracy, always occupied leading positions in the political, economic, and religious life of Southern Italy, from the Swabian period until the abolition of feudalism. The earliest reliable records of the family, whose origins are ancient but poorly documented, date back to the Norman period.
\nFrom the thirteenth century onward, the principal branch of the Ruffo di Calabria, Counts of Catanzaro and later Marquises of Crotone, gave rise to two other powerful branches: the Counts of Sinopoli, later Princes of Scilla, and the Counts of Montalto.
\nThese three principal branches gave rise to numerous other branches (among the most important were the Ruffo-Licinardo, the Ruffo of Provence, the Ruffo of Scaletta-Floresta, and the French branch of Bonneval), which produced distinguished military leaders, statesmen, and high-ranking prelates. The new Sinopoli branch originated from the marriage between Fulco (or Folco) Ruffo of the Catanzaro branch and Margherita di Pavia, the only daughter of Messer Carnelevario; among her many possessions was Sinopoli.
\nWith the extinction of the Catanzaro and Montalto branches, that of Sinopoli remained the only surviving branch of the Ruffo di Calabria, from which descended the branches of Scilla, Scaletta, Floresta, and the French branch of Bonneval. Folco, a close friend of Frederick II, followed him in his military campaigns through central and northern Italy.
\nFrom Folco descended Enrico, who entered the service of the Angevins and led numerous campaigns against the Aragonese; he was entrusted with important political offices, being appointed chamberlain and viceroy of Terra di Lavoro by Charles II and, in 1291, was given responsibility for governing the villages of Naples and criminal jurisdiction over L\u2019Aquila.
\nFrom Enrico descended Guglielmo, who in 1335 was appointed Captain General and Justiciar of Calabria. In 1347 Carlo and Ruggero, sons of Guglielmo, went into exile in France to escape Louis of Hungary, who intended to avenge the murder of King Andrew, husband of Joanna I (Poncet, son of Ruggero, acquired in France the lordship of Lamanon, then the lordship of Bonneval and the Marquisate of La Fare, giving rise to the new branch of the Ruffo of Provence). Enrico, Guglielmo\u2019s eldest son, always fought alongside his Montalto cousins in support of the Durazzo family and received, among other things, a palace in Naples from Charles III.
\nEnrico was succeeded by his son Antonello, who came into conflict with his uncle Folco over inheritance matters. The dispute ended with the royal assignment to Folco of the fiefs of Sinopoli, Santa Cristina, Solano, Sitizano, Fiumara di Muro, and Calanna; Antonello received the fiefs of Brancaleone, Palizzi, Placanica, Bruzzano Vecchio, Condoianni, and several properties in Reggio. With this division, the new branch of the Ruffo of Brancaleone-Condoianni was established, lasting four generations before becoming extinct at the beginning of the sixteenth century. In 1383 Louis II of Anjou temporarily confiscated the County of Sinopoli from Folco because of his support for the Durazzo family.
\nUpon Folco\u2019s death, Guglielmo succeeded him. Carlo, Guglielmo\u2019s son, during the first phase of the conflict between Louis of Anjou and Alfonso the Magnanimous, between 1420 and 1423, made a significant military and financial contribution to the Aragonese cause. In return, Alfonso of Aragon appointed him Justiciar of the entire Duchy of Calabria.
\nCarlo suffered the confiscation of all his possessions after his brother-in-law Antonio Centelles escaped from Castelnuovo in 1460 to resume his rebellion against the sovereign.\nTwo years later Ferrante, after his temporary reconciliation with Centelles, promised Carlo that the family fiefs would be restored to his son Giovanni as soon as he reached adulthood. Carlo and the sons of his brother Nicolantonio were Ferrante\u2019s principal supporters.
\nDuring the conflict, Carlo was captured, while his nephew Guglielmo (son of Nicolantonio) occupied Sinopoli until Giovanni came of age. Ferrante failed to keep his promise to restore the paternal fiefs to Giovanni, and after the deaths of Guglielmo and Carlo (sons of Nicolantonio), in 1484 he granted the fief of Bagnara to their third brother, Esa\u00f9, whose possession was later confirmed by Alfonso II through a diploma issued in 1494.
\nAfter many vicissitudes, Count Giovanni succeeded in recovering only the County of Sinopoli. Other possessions were later regained by his son Paolo, who renounced the territory of Bagnara after reaching a definitive agreement with his cousin Bernardo, son of Esa\u00f9. After his possession of the County of Sinopoli was reconfirmed in 1520, Paolo pursued a policy of expansion by purchasing new fiefs.
\nIn February 1533, he purchased the fief of Scilla from Guttiere de Nava for the sum of 30,000 ducats, thus establishing the branch of the Ruffo of Sinopoli-Scilla. The Castle of Scilla, where Count Paolo settled with his family, became the principal residence of the Ruffo until the abolition of feudalism.
\nPaolo, however, came into conflict with the Municipality of Scilla, giving rise to a long dispute that was never resolved.
\nDuring his lifetime he transferred first the territory of Scilla and later the County of Sinopoli and the remaining fiefs to his eldest son Fabrizio, born of his marriage to Caterina Spinelli. Fabrizio, the new Count of Scilla, obtained the title of Prince of Scilla through a diploma issued in Madrid by Philip II in July 1578; he married Ippolita de Gennaro and, after becoming a widower, Isabella d\u2019Aquaviva d\u2019Aragona, daughter of the Duke of Atri. In his will, drawn up in February 1587, he named his daughter Maria, born of his first marriage, as his heir and expressed his wish that three convents and a hospital be built in Scilla, and that he be buried in the Church of San Pancrazio within the Castle of Scilla. Maria married her cousin Vincenzo Ruffo (son of Marcello, her father\u2019s brother).
\nThe new Princess completed the restoration of the Church of San Pancrazio begun by her father within the Castle of Scilla and founded the Convent of the Crociferi Fathers in Scilla in 1619.
\nThe important economic operations aimed at expanding and enhancing the family\u2019s estates, initiated first by Count Paolo Ruffo and later by Fabrizio, were continued by Maria and her husband through the acquisition of numerous fiefs at the beginning of the seventeenth century; Vincenzo also purchased a palace in Naples, in the Santa Chiara district, from Ettore Pignatelli, Duke of Monteleone, where the silk produced in Calabria was transported.
\nIn 1616 Vincenzo Ruffo died together with his eldest and only son, Fabrizio. The following year, Vincenzo\u2019s possessions were inherited by his daughter Giovanna, who had married her cousin Francesco Vincenzo Ruffo (son of Munzio and Camilla Santapau, widow of the Spanish nobleman Pietro Velasquez).
\nIn 1610, through the renunciation of his aunt Benavides, Francesco Vincenzo acquired the wealthy Marquisate of Liconia and, in 1625, the Principality of Palazzuolo, ceded to him by his half-brother Guttieres Velasquez. Maria, Giovanna\u2019s mother, who had remarried Tiberio Carafa, Prince of Stignano, after being widowed, died in 1630.
\nTwo years later Giovanna\u2019s husband also died, and she married Francesco Maria Carafa.
\nFrom 1630 onward the Ruffo family experienced a profound financial crisis, which had begun during the final years of Princess Maria\u2019s administration and from which they recovered only toward the end of the century.
\nBoth before and after the crisis, Giovanna devoted considerable sums to completing the religious institutions that Fabrizio had ordered by testament and that her mother Maria had begun.
\nIn Scilla she completed the Convent of the Crociferi founded by her mother, finished the Convent of the Observant Fathers founded by her grandfather Fabrizio, and established the Capuchin Convent.
\nShe also contributed to the restoration and construction of several churches in Scilla and founded the Convent of Saint Francis of Paola in Catona, for which she most likely donated a painting depicting Saint Rufus, the patron saint of the Ruffo family.
\nUnder the administration of Francesco Maria, Giovanna\u2019s son, the Ruffo family\u2019s economic recovery began. The Prince, who remained unmarried, in 1683 gave the Marquisate of Liconia and the Principality of Palazzolo to his brother Tiberio upon his marriage to Agata Branciforte.
\nFrancesco Maria was succeeded by his nephew Guglielmo, son of his brother Tiberio, who inherited his father\u2019s rich collection of paintings, precious objects, and arquebuses. Enlarged through the acquisition of additional paintings, it became one of the richest collections in Southern Italy, comprising 295 works by masters such as Rubens, Raphael, Mattia Preti, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, and Ribera.
\nThe inventory of the picture gallery and other valuable objects was personally compiled by Guglielmo, who, in his will of 1747, imposed the absolute condition that they should never be removed from the Castle of Scilla or sold under any circumstances, since they brought prestige to both the castle and the family.
\nThis condition was violated by Guglielmo\u2019s successors, who sold most of the paintings between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, while those that remained were transferred to Naples in 1848.
\nAmong the works owned by Guglielmo was a marble bust of Saint Peter bearing at its base the coat of arms of the Ruffo of Scilla, which Guglielmo donated to the Church of Saint Peter, restored by him, belonging to the Basilian Convent of Saint Anastasia in San Pietro di Solano.
\nThe bust, attributed by Paola Della Pergola to Francesco Mochi, was transferred in 1873 to the Mother Church of Scilla, where it is still preserved. Guglielmo married Silvia della Marra and, during his lifetime, transferred his possessions to his eldest son Fulco Antonio, who also inherited the Duchy of Guardia Lombarda from his mother.
\nIn 1782 Guglielmo Antonio, eldest son of Fulco Antonio and Teresa Ivar de Estrada, died. During the tsunami that struck Scilla following the earthquake of 1783, Fulco Antonio also lost his life, and he was succeeded by his grandson Francesco Fulco Antonio, who married Carlotta della Leonessa.
\nThe new Prince of Scilla died in 1803 and was succeeded by his eldest son Fulco Giordano.
\nOn 10 May 1810, the commission established to resolve disputes between feudal lords and the municipalities of the Kingdom following the abolition of feudalism in 1806 finally settled the last disputes between the feudal lord and the Municipality of Scilla.
<\/p>\n

Dott.ssa Maria Fiorillo<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2524,"parent":1450,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1452","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nI Ruffo di Calabria - Discover Scilla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/castello-ruffo-di-scilla\/i-ruffo-di-calabria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Ruffo di Calabria - Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/castello-ruffo-di-scilla\/i-ruffo-di-calabria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-23T17:01:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/I-Ruffo-di-Calabria-e1784826040781.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"509\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"616\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/castello-ruffo-di-scilla\\\/i-ruffo-di-calabria\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/castello-ruffo-di-scilla\\\/i-ruffo-di-calabria\\\/\",\"name\":\"I Ruffo di Calabria - 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