Description of the attraction
Castle Castel del Monte, whose name translates as "castle on the mountain", stands in the city of Andria in the Italian region of Apulia. It once bore the name Castrum Sancta Maria del Monte, as it was built on the site of the former monastery of St. Mary on the Mountain. True, by the time the castle was erected in the middle of the 13th century, nothing was left of the monastery.
The construction of the castle was started by order of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and lasted for about ten years. Already in 1250, the powerful structure was ready, although the interior decoration continued.
Castel del Monte, which has the shape of a regular octagon, is located 16 km from the city of Andria, in a place called Terra di Bari - Land of Bari. The same octagonal towers are built in the corners. The height of the castle reaches 25 meters, the length of the walls is 16.5 meters, and the width of the walls of the towers is 3.1 meters. The main entrance is located on the east side, and there is an alternate portal on the west side. An interesting feature of the castle is that the two sides of the side tower touch one of the sides of the main building.
I must say that the two-story Castel del Monte is not actually a castle in the full sense of the word, since it does not have a moat, ramparts and a drawbridge. There are also no storage rooms, stables or a separate kitchen. Therefore, the purpose of Castel del Monte is still controversial among scientists. The generally accepted version is that the castle was the hunting residence of Emperor Frederick II. True, the richly decorated interiors make scientists argue further - this decoration for a hunting lodge was too magnificent and elegant.
Inside, the castle consists of 16 rooms, eight on each floor. The corner towers are occupied by wardrobes, toilets and spiral staircases, the latter twisting not to the right, but to the left. The location of the castle rooms is interesting: for example, two rooms on the first floor have no exits to the courtyard. Four rooms have only one door, and the passage halls have 2-3 portals. All rooms on the second floor are illuminated by sunlight twice a day throughout the year, and rooms on the first floor are illuminated only in summer. Such a strange design suggests that Castel del Monte was a kind of astronomical instrument: its upper part is a giant sundial, and the first floor serves as a calendar, the spaces of which are evenly illuminated during the summer and winter solstice. And this is another unsolved mystery of the ancient castle, which the locals call the "Crown of Apulia".
