A walking from Castel del Monte to Andria

Castel del Monte: the masterpiece wanted by Federick II of Swabia

On top of a large hill, in the Murgia conutryside lies a singular castle which Frederick II of Swabia wanted to build at all costs. Set against an immense and limpid blue sky, the Castel del Monte appears as a crown resting on a firm mass of rock. Frederick II of Swabia, an Italian at heart though of foreign stock, built this wondrous edifice for this wonderful land, which he loved and in which he wanted to live. Masterpiece of architecture with a regular octagonal shape, with eight turrets, also octagonal, inserted on the top of keystones, Castel del Monte is placed at a height of 540 metres, in the sloping fertile fields. Inland, like large blotches interspersed in the green countryside, lie the groups of houses that make up the towns of Andria, Canosa, Trani e Barletta, while the Gulf of the gargano with its ?Mount of the Archangel? and the plains of Lucania dominated by the Monte Vulture represent the outer limits of this far-reaching view.


Olive trees

There is no other place having so may olive trees as our land has and a place where different cultures settled and left, mixed and integrated themselves always creating original expressions of civilization. The olive picking starts in late autumn when they are ripe but still green anf it is done with the system of hand nibbling.


The Gurgo

Nearny Santurio SS. Salvatore in Andria, there is a karstic depression called Gurgo. The puolo has a contour similar to an ellipse with a major axis of 275 m. and the minor axis of about 200 m.. Perimeter is about 800 m. and includes an aerea of 43.000 square metres. The bottom is almost flat and put about 32 and 38 m. underneath.

« previous