 Monaldeschi

The Monaldeschi were one of the powerful noble families of Orvieto, central Italy, members of the Guelph party who contested with murders and violence the Ghibelline Filippeschi for control of the commune of Orvieto and the "castelli" of Umbria.One branch especially, the Monaldeschi della Cervara, dominated the life and politics of Orvieto, resisting Papal power from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century

The central stronghold in the network of "castelli" that the Monaldeschi controlled was Torre Alfina, where tradition connected the central tower with Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards.