keepsakeapulia

DISCOVERING APULIA
by Filly Mattarese

Considering Italy as a boot, as it’s often nicknamed, Apulia is its heel. It’s a very peculiar region since there many different people settled since prehistoric times, e.g. Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Jews, Byzantines, Normans, Swabians, Langobards, Goths, and so on.

Apulia has kept something of them both in its monuments and habits, in its traditions and particularly in its language.

What strikes most the visitor’s attention is the fact that the German Emperor Fredrick II (XIII century) did choose Apulia as his favourite country, and in fact he’s called “puer Apuliae”, i.e. “son of Apulia”. Here there are more than 100 castles and only a cathedral (the one in Altamura) that he made built. The most important one not because of its bigness but because of its magnificence is Castel del Monte.

It is situated on a hill near a little town called Andria and it has octagonal shape and 8 octagonal towers. It has an octagonal court. The fireplaces in the rooms have a strange form, like the hat of a magician. On the stairs there are the symbols of the planets.

This castle was not conceived for hunting or for living, someone say that it was an esoteric castle built for magic, where Fredrick II met all the scholars of his time and talked about religion, magic and such subjects.
It is particular because in the last room (you follow a path in the 8 rooms at the lower floor, then you go upstairs and follow the path in the 8 rooms at the upper floor) you find some signs on the ground, and it seems those were signs for magical purposes. There is a very large window in this room that opens towards the East, and when the sun rises the room is full of light. The walls are in a particular red stone taken from Near Eastern countries and this becomes hot when the sunlight enters, and some people feel particular sensations when the walls are hot and the sunlight is in.
By the way there are many legends about Castel del Monte. One of the most important and probably true is that it is built on a line that run from Cheope’s pyramid in Egypt, goes through Castel del Monte, then goes to Chartres’ Cathedral and to St Paul’s in London. These places seem to create the same sensations in those people who are more sensible to some hidden happenings of the past and that feel these last as if they have lived them.