Del Monte

Agrandir le plan

Shortened history of the castle:

The castle Del Monte (in Italian: Castle of the Mount) is a 13th century castle situated in southeastern Italy. It was first built by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II some time between 1240 and 1250; it has been despoiled of its interior marbles and furnishings in subsequent centuries. What is surprising about this castle is that it neither a moat nor a drawbridge and might in fact never have been intended as a defensive fortress.

In the 14th century, it was turned into a prison, and later used as a refuge during the Plague. It originally had marble walls and columns, but all were stripped by vandals.

The fortress is an octagonal prism with an octagonal bastion at each corner. Each floor has 8 rooms and an eight-sided courtyard occupies its centre.[1] The octagon is thought to be an intermediate symbol between a square (representing the earth) and a circle (representing the sky).

After having been abandoned for a considerable length of time, the castle was purchased in 1876 for the sum of 25,000 lire by the Italian government, which began the process of restoration in 1928.

The castle was considered as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996, who described it as "a unique masterpiece of medieval military architecture".

The castle appears on one of the sides of the Italian 1 Euro cent coin.