Between the mountains that encircle Lake Trasimeno to the north, the narrow valley carved by the Rio torrent creeps up the slopes of Monte Castiglione. Leaving the settlement of Vernazzano basso, the road climbs among a forest of tall oaks and olive groves until it reaches a small, older settlement called Vernazzano alto, built around the Church of S. Michele Arcangelo (better known as the Church of S. Lucia). From here, along a steep path, one reaches the torrent Rio and, after crossing the small wooden bridge, can enjoy a unique spectacle: high above, amidst the ruins of the walls of an ancient castle that enclosed the parish church, a leaning tower juts out over the precipice, under the roar of the waters that rush down between the boulders. Torre Pendente di Vernazzano (Leaning tower of Vernazzano) still represents a symbol for the Vernazzanesi (inhabitants of Vernazzano) and their link to the history of this borderland, rich in towers and castles.

The etymology of the place-name ‘Vernazzano’ also arouses interest and curiosity: for Matteo da Isola Maggiore (important scholar of the sixteenth century) Vernazzano is associated with the Latin word ver, i.e. spring, with reference to the particular characteristics of this place where one enjoys a pleasant climate all year round. According to others, the connection with a predial (as the suffix –anus would suggest) is difficult, but if one were to isolate the first part of the toponym, one might, then, be tempted to say that Verna is even to be considered an Etruscan name for a person.

The ancient castle of Vernazzano originally belonged to the Monastery of S. Maria Petroia, which, in turn, fell under the diocese of Città di Castello, and this situation remained until 1202, the year in which all the property owned by the Monastery of S. Maria Petroia came under the dominion of the Commune of Perugia, which thus succeeded in acquiring full control of the lands and waters of Lake Trasimeno.

The district of Vernazzano also included a stretch of lake coastline and had possession of Isola Minore.

The castle, for its part, was close to the western borders of the commune of Perugia and along the route that connected Perugia itself to the lake and, therefore, to Cortona, Arezzo and Florence, a vital road junction both economically and militarily.

In 1282, the Castle of Vernazzano counted as many as 52 families, but in 1383, it was occupied by the Michelotti, exiles from Perugia, who plundered the cattle of the surrounding countryside and sacked Isola Maggiore and Isola Polvese. It was not, of course, an easy operation for Perugia to repossess the castle since the particular environmental conditions made it well defensible even by a garrison of only a few elements. It was only a few years later that Perugia managed to regain control of the castle at the cost of 350 scudi.

From then on, the defences were improved. In 1455, the watchtower was restored and in 1479 it came under attack from the Florentines, who burned and sacked it. Matteo dall’Isola Maggiore already pointed out in his Trasimenide (epic-didactic poem dedicated to Lake Trasimeno) a slow decline, relating to the decrease in population and wealth of this community. Perhaps the damage suffered over the years was difficult to repair and ultimately irreparable. However, one of the main causes of the castle’s decline can be traced back to the loss of its strategic function in relation to its extraneousness to more widely used road routes (that at that time had been diverted from the hills to the valley), which cut the castle off from more travelled communication routes.

In addition to this, the fate of the Castle of Vernazzano was definitively sealed during the 1750s and 1760s, when, first a very strong earthquake, then heavy rainfall and the erosive action of the torrent at the foot of the rocky spur, ineluctably ruined the settlement and brought the tower to its current slope.

The castle watchtower is therefore the most characteristic component of the complex, with its incredible slope of around 13° on the vertical. The church of S. Michele Arcangelo, by then unusable, was also rebuilt and inaugurated in 1772 on the other side of the Torrente Rio, giving birth to a new Vernazzano a short distance from the old one with the expressed desire not to lose its civil and religious memory.

In the new church stands out the painting by Anton Maria Garbi (1769) in which St. Michael the Archangel is about to pierce the Devil with his sword, holding tight his head and, just below this image, one can see the characteristic rocky spur, the ancient settlement still intact with its perfectly perpendicular tower.