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Castel del Monte (Andria) «il castello federiciano»

Castel del Monte

A few kilometers from Andria, 540 meters above sea level, isolated on a hill of Apulia is Castel del Monte, the most famous monument of Emperor Frederick II of Swabia.
The building dates back to the first half of the '200, having been built between 1240 and 1246, and has the unique octagonal plan with eight octagonal towers also arranged at the vertices of the polygon that do not exceed the height of the body of the castle . There is no ditch or other form of defense, since it was designed to defend a territory, but built by Frederick to celebrate himself and his temporal power although, apparently, he has not ever stayed.

For the construction of the castle were used materials of different colors that were to create chromatic effects of great beauty: the local limestone, white or pink depending on the time of day and weather conditions, predominantly because it affects the architectural structures as a whole and some decorative details; marble, white or slightly tinged, trefoil in the pillars on the first floor and in the decoration of the rooms; the breach coral, used to decorate the rooms on the ground floor and in the finishing of doors and windows. Two flights of stairs leading to the main entrance and in the proportions and shape recalls the triumphal arches of the Roman era; from here you enter the first room on the ground floor which has a trapezoidal shape with cross vaults, like all the other rooms of the castle.

Access to the upper floor through two of the eight towers, equipped with spiral staircase. In the rooms, all equal to each other, have to admire the multicolored marble columns, doors and windows in coral rubble, the fireplaces and the "keystones" from shell anthropomorphic.

Castel del Monte is surrounded by an aura of mystery; each component satisfies a precise algebraic rules and so astronomical that some scholars claim that he had been chosen and designed to be the largest space observatory of the Middle Ages.
For many, the octagonal shape of the castle is due to the shape, presumably also octagonal, the Holy Grail, the cup that caught the blood of Christ and that the building had not been revealed.