Ugento Castle

The Ugento Castle is a fortified architectural complex located in the municipality of Ugento in the province of Lecce.

The castle stands on the highest point of the city. An initial layout of the building dates back to the late imperial phase, 3rd–4th century AD, subsequently modified and completed by the Normans at the end of the year 1000. It is precisely with the arrival of the Normans that Ugento was reborn; a Latin episcopal seat was established, and the castle took on the rank of a real fortress. In 1272, with the Angevin domination, the castle became royal, and Giovanni Conte was chosen as the first regent. Charles of Anjou was hosted in the castle in 1273. In 1275, the king decided to repair the manor by employing local labor, with the funds allocated for the royal castles.

These works were only partially carried out due to insufficient financial resources which, however, were disbursed the following year. The building hosted many important families, including the Colonna, the Orsini del Balzo, and the Artus.

In 1537, following the occupation of the city by the Turks, the Castle was seriously damaged: two towers were destroyed as well as a good part of the western wing, the ground floor and the first floor. In 1564, Count Vincenzo Pandone resumed rebuilding the structure; the work was then continued in 1642 by Count Emmanuele Vaaz de Andrada. In 1643, the castle, together with the Ugentinian fiefdom, was purchased by the House of the Marquises of Love, who radically transformed the building. Although residing occasionally in Ugento, the marquises worked hard to make this residence sumptuous, adapting the ancient military structure to their needs and expanding the pre-existing factories with environments equipped with modern functionality and with new reception spaces, appropriately decorated with pictorial cycles of subjects mythological.

The castle took on a new face: from a solid defensive structure to a sumptuous marquis residence. The promoters of these interventions in the two-year period 1694-1695 were the brothers Nicola and Francesco d'Amore who built, in the so-called "piano nobile", new and sumptuous reception rooms decorated with a cycle of frescoes inspired by Greek and Roman mythology and the Old Testament, enriched with anecdotes from the history of ancient Rome.

Text adapted from “Castle of Ugento” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ugento Castle ranks #7,322 of 8,764 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #499 of the 528 mapped in Italy. Founded 1000, it is older than 92% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 146 atlas entries founded in the 10th century. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

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