Italy · 13th century
Castel del Monte (Italian for 'Castle of the Mountain'; Barese: Castidde du Monte) is a 13th-century citadel and castle situated on a hill in Andria in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. It was built during the 1240s by King Frederick II, who had inherited the lands from his mother Constance of Sicily. In the 18th century, the castle's interior marbles and remaining furnishings were removed. It has neither a moat nor a drawbridge and some considered it never to have been intended as a defensive fortress. However, archaeological work has suggested that it originally had a curtain wall.
The castle is famous for its bold octagonal plan, and classicizing details of the architecture. In 1996, Castel del Monte was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, which described it as "a unique masterpiece of medieval military architecture". Described by the Enciclopedia Italiana as "the most fascinating castle built by Frederick II", it also appears on the Italian version of the one cent Euro coin.
Text adapted from “Castel del Monte, Apulia” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Castel del Monte ranks #49 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #3 of the 555 mapped in Italy. Founded 1240, it is older than 71% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1090 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 40,404 times in the last 60 days, more than 99% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 210,000 visitors in 2022. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.
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