Castel del Monte: what to know about Frederick II's castle

On the horizon, every day

Early in the morning, when the air is still cool and clear, look up past the olive trees and you will see it: a pale, square-shouldered shape on a distant hill, unlike anything else in the landscape. That is Castel del Monte. We see it on the horizon from the masseria, and those of us who grew up here are so used to it that we sometimes forget how rare it is to have a monument like this in view every single day.

Guests who come from far away notice it at once. Someone usually stops mid-sentence and asks, ‘Is that the castle?’ It is. It stands on the Murgia, the limestone plateau inland from the Adriatic coast, in the territory of Andria, the town in northern Puglia where our family story began in 1859, with a great-grandfather whose name I happen to share.

Frederick II, the emperor who loved Puglia

The castle was commissioned by Frederick II of Swabia, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, one of the most cultured rulers of the Middle Ages. Puglia was among his favourite lands: he had castles, residences and hunting grounds across the region. The first document that concerns Castel del Monte dates from 1240, and the building belongs to the 1240s, the last decade of the emperor's life. He died in 1250.

In Andria the bond with Frederick is still felt. The town remembers a motto attributed to him, ‘Andria fidelis nostris affixa medullis’, which means, more or less, ‘faithful Andria, rooted deep in our heart’. The castle stands within the town's municipal territory, out on the open plateau, and today it lies inside the Alta Murgia National Park.

An octagon of stone

What strikes everyone is the shape. This is not a castle as children draw it, with crooked walls and towers scattered here and there. It is a precise geometric figure, repeated with almost stubborn consistency.

• The plan is an octagon: eight sides.
• At each of the eight corners stands a tower, and each tower is itself octagonal.
• In the middle is a courtyard, again with eight sides.
• There are two floors, with eight rooms on each, one for every side.
• The stone is Murgia limestone, the same pale stone as the dry-stone walls in our fields, with touches of marble and of breccia corallina, a reddish stone.

Why was it built? Theories and legends

Here we have to be honest: nobody knows for certain what the castle was for. It has no moat and no drawbridge, and it does not look built to withstand a siege. Scholars have suggested many answers, from a hunting lodge to a symbol of imperial power, and none has convinced everyone.

Where documents are silent, legends have moved in. People say the castle is aligned with the sun at the solstices, that the number eight hides secret meanings, that its measurements conceal elaborate calculations. They are lovely stories for a summer evening, but they remain stories, and we tell them as such.

What we do know is that over the centuries the castle was also neglected and stripped of its marble and furnishings. In 1876 the Italian state bought it and restoration began. In 1996 UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List.

A coin, a wine and a view

Castel del Monte is so much a part of Italy that Italians carry it in their pockets: it is the image on the Italian 1-cent euro coin. It also gives its name to the Castel del Monte wine denominations of this area. One of them, Castel del Monte Bombino Nero DOCG, is Italy's only DOCG reserved for rosé, and we make it from our own vineyards. Giuseppe, our winemaker, explains it in What is Castel del Monte Bombino Nero DOCG?

Visiting: a few practical notes

If you are staying in northern Puglia, the castle is easy to combine with a day in the countryside. It is a short drive from the masseria, up on the plateau, and the masseria itself is about 50 minutes from Bari airport. Opening times and tickets are set by the castle's managers and can change with the seasons, so check the official information before you set out.

Our advice is simple: leave time for the landscape around it. The castle makes more sense once you have seen the stone, the fields and the olive groves it was built among. Then come down into the countryside. At the masseria you can book a wine tasting with the castle on the horizon, or a visit to the cellar and the olive mill among our experiences: wine and oil from the same land on which Frederick II chose to build his octagon.

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