Lagopesole Castle is located on the hill overlooking the Vitalba Valley. It was a hunting and summer “otium” residence built by Emperor Frederick II in 1242. The reference to the domus of Lagopesole in the Statutum de reparatione castrorum in the early 1240s testifies with certainty to the usability of much of the building before the emperor’s death.
The Angevins completed its construction by restoring the roofs and equipping it with an aqueduct, stables, and a pond in front where eels were raised, caught in the lakes of Versentino and Salpi.
It consists of two main buildings: one purely residential and the other military in nature, likely of Norman origin.
The external wall surface is characterized by the massive compactness of the rusticated stonework, interrupted by the entrance located on the west side and protected by two symmetrical projections.
Inside, the spaces are organized around two courtyards; the residential rooms gather on two levels and three sides around the larger northern courtyard of the building.
In the western hall on the upper floor (the so-called “Emperor’s Hall”), you can still admire the refined sculptures of the capitals and the supporting corbels of the original roof structures.
At the center of the smaller courtyard stands a sturdy square tower, the donjon, whose slightly rotated and offset position relative to the layout confirms the hypothesis of a pre-existing Norman military structure. The tower contains two rooms: the upper one equipped with toilets built within the thickness of the walls, and a lower room with a cistern.
Since the summer of 2011, alongside the permanent exhibition documenting the medieval excavations of the site, the castle hosts the multimedia museum “The World of Frederick II”, a multimedia museum path dedicated to the myth of Frederick II. During the summer period, the museum offer expands with a multimedia show also dedicated to the life of Emperor Frederick II, held in the courtyards of the castle.
Information on Lagopesole Castle
85021 Avigliano (Potenza)
0971 86083
info@castellodilagopesole.com
https://www.castellodilagopesole.com
Source: MIBACT
