| It rises about 17 km from Andria on a hill about 540 meters. It is situated along the S.S. 170. The castle was built by local, Saracens and Nordic stonemasons and craftsmen. Symbol of power Swabian Castel del Monte in external calls only the type of fortress, because lacks a ditch, and the underground defense works in general. It has an octagonal plan with eight towers of similar form at the edges, and was erected as a hunting lodge or entertainment products on mathematics and astronomy, by Swabian emperor around 1240. It has sixteen trapezoidal rooms spread over two floors connected by stairs placed in the towers. We come together in perfect symbiosis of the Roman style elements, Arab, Norman and Gothic. Turned into a prison by the Angevins, was the scene of the festivities for the marriage of Beatrice d'Anjou and Bertrando del Balzo in 1308. After various vicissitudes, was purchased by Carafa, together with the town of Andria, in 1552, left unattended after it suffered a sad history of plunder and devastation. Since 1876, state property, which has restored and made accessible.
Despite the looting suffered over the centuries, you can even rebuild as ornamental Frederick that was distributed throughout the building with elegance. A wide range of colors was created through the juxtaposition of different materials such as coral rubble, the white marble, sandstone blonde, together with the use of the inlay technique. Rich was the decorative sculpture, plant type in capitals and keystones, inspired by the fantastic wildlife and the human figure in brackets and keystones, true to historical reality in the contemporary knight who emerges from the wall of a courtyard door, busts that stood out in a time when classical pediment of the main portal, as it says in the nineteenth century descriptions and other pieces now on display at the Pinacoteca Provinciale of Bari. On many of the capitals of Castel del Monte and other points are plant species "seen" directly from nature, fig leaves, vine leaves and ivy, richly carved, sculpted to resemble the flora in cathedrals across the Alps, in particular of Reims and the Sainte-Chapelle. Many heads-shelf items in support of the ribs of the vault of the third tower have disappeared, and remain one poignant expression of the faun and the female face smiling and full, with an independent vitality that erupt from architectural structures. In Castel del Monte is gather up any quality at the highest level of art Frederick: the experience of mature artists marked the most new culture beyond the Alps meets the youth of those who continue in the second half of the century the experience of Frederick Ball.
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