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But gradually as you get closer, the castle reveals, in its complex simplicity, the powerful charm of one of the most beautiful and mysterious of the buildings left by Frederick II. “Star of the Murgia,” “Crown of Apulia,” “Stone Flower,” Imperial Gem” these are some of the epithets for this monument whose geometric perfection has aroused the interest of innumerable scholars and has been the cause of many liters of spilled ink. “There are two ways of approaching the enigmatic monument,” writes Professor Franco Cardini in his "Castel del Monte" (published by Il Mulino). “The first consists, naturally, in preparing for the meeting with adequate reading. None of these is entirely exhaustive or convincing, but there are few of them; and at least consulting a good guide book and looking at a well executed plan of the building will is to be hoped for. But it would be no less advisable, for completely different reasons, to approach the castle without knowing anything, allowing oneself to be guided by its powers of attraction to discovering it little by little, and allowing your curiosity to take the lead, because one of the characteristics that immediately emerges is that of a profound, rigorous rationalism of the plan and the design. “
Whatever method you choose, Castel del Monte, with its towers, bifurcated windows, rooms, and courtyard, will stay in your memory as one of the most beautiful encounters of your southern journeys. Was
it a royal place, a monument, a place for meetings of the wise, a
temple? The solitary edifice on the Murgia continues to keep its secrets,
enigmatic, like its builder Frederck II: emperor, king, crusader,
tyrant, and wise legislator, he was also a patron of the arts and
a lover of the study and observation of nature.
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