The ANNOTICO Report
This
medieval masterpiece, begun in 1240 — about the same time as Westminster
Abbey — has eight sides, linked by eight eight-sided towers.
Its seemingly endless repetition of the octagonal form has haunted
mathematicians through the ages who see it as a work of pure geometry. The more
mystically inclined impute occult significance to this temple of the octagon,
noting that great buildings around the world, such as
Whether icon or equation, the castle has more vibes than "The Da Vinci
Code," and Castel del Monte is surely one,
a model for the labyrinthine library in Umberto Eco's 1983 medieval whodunit,
"The Name of the Rose."
Castel
del Monte, as silent as a sarcophagus and as strange as a UFO, keeps its
secrets, glowing like the crown of its 13th century builder, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II.
But
A 1927 biography of
To oversee his vast domain,
Of all the lands he ruled, he loved low-lying
Among great architectural ciphers, Castel del Monte
stands out for its stubborn unlock-ability, though it is less well known than
others chiefly because it is in the relatively untrammeled heel of the Italian
boot.
Of all the lands he ruled, he loved low-lying
In
Eight-sided
enigma Castel del Monte, in the country's boot heel,
lures visitors into the mystery of its maker.
By Susan Spano, Times Staff Writer
AT Castel del Monte, the stage is set for tragedy or black
magic. Clouds scuttle across the sky, and a milk-white full moon rises.
Footsteps echo on cold, wheat-colored stone, startling pigeons into flight.
A medieval emperor hunted with falcons and cheetahs here, consulted astrologers
and slept on Oriental silk.
Local
people sought refuge during the plague, and brigands hid out in the castle.
Vandals over the years stripped it, leaving little more than an empty shell on
a lonely hilltop at the edge of the Murge, a
barren-looking limestone plateau worlds apart from the sunny Italian south most
people know.
This medieval masterpiece, begun in 1240 — about the same time as
Westminster Abbey — has eight sides, linked by eight eight-sided towers.
Its seemingly endless repetition of the octagonal form has haunted
mathematicians through the ages who see it as a work of pure geometry. The more
mystically inclined impute occu! lt
significance to this temple of the octagon, noting that great buildings around
the world, such as
Whether icon or equation, the castle has more vibes than "The Da Vinci
Code," as I discovered when I came here in February, drawn like iron
shavings to a magnet. I didn't know why I had to see it, except I love a good
mystery. And Castel del Monte is surely one, a model
for the labyrinthine library in Umberto Eco's 1983 medieval whodunit, "The
Name of the Rose." I stood in the castle's deserted courtyard at dusk,
nerves taut, heart thumping, ears pitched, wishing the walls could talk.
But Castel del Monte, as silent as a sarcophagus and
as strange as a UFO, keeps its secrets, glowing like the crown of its 13th
century builder, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.
Like
Cultured and brutal, despotic and enlightened, a Christian crusader who was
excommunicated, he left a legacy that historians still debate, including David Abulafia, author of the recent biography "Frederick
II: A Medieval Emperor," which seeks to demystify the medieval ruler.
But
A 1927 biography of
To oversee his vast domain,
Of all the lands he ruled, he loved low-lying
Among great architectural ciphers, Castel del Monte
stands out for its stubborn unlock-ability, though it is less well known than
others chiefly because it is in the relatively untrammeled, ill-reputed Mezzogiorno, at the heel of the Italian boot.
*
I began my
explorations in
The plains
northwest of
But you'd
never know about the agricultural hinterland in
But any tour dedicated to Frederick II must include the old town of
Despite the passage of 800 years, Frederick II still casts a long shadow
throughout southern
Even more singular are their elaborations, inspired by Byzantine, Muslim and
Classical art. San Nicola, for instance, has Arabic windows, blind arches,
sculptural motifs and a central portal surmounted by a sphinx. Two oxen frame
the doorway, the smoothness of the stone attesting to the frequency with which
passersby pet them.
Trani, is a quiet town with another Frederican castle dating from 1233, and an exquisite Puglian Romanesque cathedral on the waterfront, backed by
the
San Nicola Pellegrino, the third of three churches built one on top of the
other, has a tall, elegant campanile, a fancifully decorated facade featuring
all the animals in Frederick's menagerie, including elephants, and a finely c!
rafted, 12th century bronze door (now inside the church for safekeeping).
Barletta, about 10 miles north of Trani,
has another striking Puglian Romanesque cathedral and
was where Frederick launched a crusade in 1228 to liberate
then-Muslim-controlled Jerusalem, after repeated promptings from Pope Gregory
IX. The emperor's tardiness in getting started earned him excommunication, a
censure he bore for the rest of his days even though he won back
At a time when theologians were criticizing
*
The hunt is on
AFTER my one night in
It stayed cold and foggy while I was here, which made
It's a stiff climb from the parking lot to the portal, a Class! ical triumphal arch on the building's east side, sculpted
of rose-colored breccia. Besides the main entry and a
handful of small, mullioned windows, the exterior walls are blank.
Inside the octagon, the rooms are arrayed around an eight-sided courtyard and
open onto one another with no corridors. The towers between them have vestiges
of 13th century latrines, vaulted Gothic ceilings and spiral staircases leading
to the second story, almost a mirror image of the first. Though most of the
castle's embellishments are long gone, some marble fireplaces, graceful
three-tiered columns and cunningly sculpted capitals remain, hinting at the
original dйcor.
The chamber above the entrance is thought to have been
Around 1248, the emperor wrote "The Art of Hunting With Falcon," an
ornithological treatise that survives in illustrated-m! anuscript
form at the Vatican Library in
In it, Frederick identified himself as "one who cared nothing for the size
of the kill but only for the thread of understanding between man and bird,
[for] the skill that enabled a man to extend his will into the sky and to draw
back his emissary from the clouds."
That is
the man I thought of rattling around his castle in the dying light, not the
heretical monster abhorred by the pope or the medieval tyrant admired by
Hitler, though historians suggest he may have been something of both.
Good and bad at once, like all men. Maybe that's the real riddle of Castel del Monte, tantalizing, troubling, impossible to
solve.
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