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Atika/ Italy/ Fortress/CASTEL DEL MONTE
CASTEL DEL MONTE
Norman · Fortress41.0847°N, 16.2710°E

CASTEL DEL MONTE

Castel del Monte crowns a lonely hill in the Apulian Murge, and no one is quite sure what it was for. Frederick II raised it around 1240 with no moat, no stables, no obvious defences: an octagon of eight octagonal towers around an octagonal courtyard. The number eight repeats obsessively, and scholars have called it a hunting lodge, an astronomical instrument, and a stone crown for an emperor who styled himself heir to Rome. What is certain is that the geometry is exact enough that equinox light falls through the windows at deliberate angles. It is the most enigmatic castle in Italy, and it is on the Italian 1-cent coin.

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