According to known historical information, the Castle of Valentano was built as a defensive structure around 1053. It can be thought that at that time a wall enclosed a fort with a tower, the church dedicated to San Giovanni and the first houses.
The war between Orvieto and Viterbo led to a series of destructions and reconstructions of the castle until the fire which, in 1252, as tradition tells, partly burned the town which was saved by Sant'Agata, protector from fires.
The Castle of Valentano, starting from the octagonal tower, was rebuilt in 1296 on pre-existing medieval defensive buildings.
In 1327, under Ludovico il Bavaro, the town and the walls of Valentano suffered serious damage and more damage was caused by the troops of the prefect Giovanni Di Vico of Viterbo in 1350.
Years of peace for our Castle began with the arrival of the Farnese who took possession of the Castle in 1354, at the time of Cardinal Albornoz, during the presence of the popes in Avignon. Later they became lords of Valentano and other neighboring towns.
The Castle was inhabited by the Farnese family more assiduously around 1400 when a part of the monument was restored and the round tower was built, located towards the east. Still several works were carried out towards the end of the 1400s when the love courtyard was built for the wedding of Angelo, son of Pier Luigi il Seniore and Lella Orsini of Pitigliano, celebrated in 1488. The valuable capitals are the work of a certain Lorenzo, stonemason of Florence. The courtyard speaks of this marriage through the union of the coats of arms of the two families and the allegory of the flowering of the Farnese lily that appears on the capitals of the lower colonnade.
Subsequently other transformations took place at the time of the marriage of Pier Luigi Farnese, junior, with Gerolama Orsini in 1519, with interventions by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (as appears in the well of the travertine well placed on one side of the courtyard, as portals, window jambs and, above all, in the monumental fireplace located in the upper "Sala Ducale"). These were the most beautiful years in the life of the Castle because important characters were born there such as: Alessandro and Ranuccio, future cardinals, the Dukes Ottavio and Orazio and Vittoria, Duchess of Urbino.
In 1534 Alessandro Farnese was elected Pope with the name of Paul III. It was he who wanted to build the large loggia, with eleven upper arches, in tuff and brick towards the west, which is why it is called Loggia di Paolo III.
Pier Luigi, in 1537, became Duke of Castro and, in 1545, of Parma and Piacenza.
The Castle was still inhabited by the Duchess Gerolama Orsini and by her son Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who had a large frescoed staircase built to go up to their apartments.
The Farnese were forced to abandon the Castle of Valentano in 1649, after the war with the Papal States and the destruction of Castro, the capital of the Duchy.
The monument was first used as a granary and prisons of the Community and, then, used from 1731 as a Monastery of Dominican Sisters who transformed the castle in various parts and, above all, built a Holy Staircase in the ancient staircase of Alessandro Farnese.
During the Risorgimento period a wing of the Castle housed a garrison of Zouaves, French soldiers sent to Valentano by Pius IX to fight the Garibaldini (from 1867 to 1870).
When, around 1930, the nuns of the Monastery were transferred to Gubbio, the Municipality assigned the castle to house elementary schools and therefore some rooms were used as homes.
The castle, abandoned in 1957, has been restored since 1979.
Today it houses the Library (since 1989) and the Museum of Prehistory of Tuscia, inaugurated in 1996.
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