The castle of Lucera is a castle located in the municipality of

Lucera Lucera ( Lucerino: ) is an Italian city of 34,243 inhabitants in the province of Foggia in the region of Apulia, and the seat of the Diocese of Lucera-Troia. Located upon a flat knoll in the Tavoliere Plains, near the foot of Daunian Mountain ...

, in the province of Foggia, southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, dating back to the 13th century. Currently only remnants of the castle and its walls are left.

History

The construction of the castle was commissioned by

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (German language, German: ''Friedrich''; Italian language, Italian: ''Federico''; Latin: ''Federicus''; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Em ...

following his decision to lead the

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...

s rebels of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

in the town of Lucera, thus attempting to pacify the situation. The castle was built in 1233 on the foundations of a

Romanic The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

cathedral and the walls were added later (between 1269 and 1283) by

Charles I of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the Capetian House of Anjou, second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and County of Fo ...

. This addition was necessary for the difference in use that he wanted to make of the structure: from imperial palace as was intended to fortified castle and permanent military garrison. The material of construction was mainly acquired from the remains of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

buildings still present in the area. The castle, in fact, lies in the same place of the

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

of the ancient Roman city. The complex was heavily damaged by an earthquake that struck the area in 1456, and was almost completely demolished in the 18th century to use the resulting material for the construction of the court. This ended in the 19th century, when the first restoration works begun.

Structure

The square truncated

pyramidal A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilater ...

base, still visible, comes from following French projects. The Hohenstaufen castle, of which there are only buried fragments, was inside this tower, an outward complex that rose three floors. The castle was built around a central square courtyard. The courtyard at the third floor instead presented an

octagonal In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

shape, characteristics that resemble very closely the most famous structure built by Frederick II in the area: Castel del Monte. The Swabian castle had a normal entry at street level. The surrounding French base has no access to the street level, so was raised the question of how it was possible to access it. It has been assumed that the entry was made possible by the presence of ladders downed from above, while the most evocative hypothesis (supported by the discovery of tunnels near the castle) suggests the access from an underground entrance. The absence of a doorway, however, is significant of the strategic importance of the castle, which in this way was more difficult to conquer. A circular 14-meter-deep cistern located under the courtyard guaranteed the water to the castle. The irregular wall that surrounds the entire hill on which stands the castle is 900 meters long, and also consists of 13 square towers, two pentagonal bastions, 7 buttresses and two cylindrical corner towers. The latter - with regular section of great precision - were with certainty part of the Frederick's project for Lucera. Even access to these walls - with the bridge over the big dig - reminds the Swabian castles in the homeland of the Emperor, such as the castle of Wildenstein, which has a similar entry.Alexander Knaak: Prolegomena zu einem Corpuswerk der Architektur Friedrichs II. von Hohenstaufen im Königreich Sizilien (1220-1250). Phil. Diss., Marburg 2001; see pp. 24ss. for the Castle of Lucera.

References

Sources

*{{cite book , author=Raffaele Licinio , author-link=Raffaele Licinio , chapter=Lucera, title= Enciclopedia Federiciana, publisher= Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani Buildings and structures completed in 1233 Castles in Apulia Buildings and structures in the Province of Foggia