Designed by architect Evangelista Menga at the behest of Alfonso Castriota, it was completed in 1540 incorporating the Angevin keep.
One of the largest fortresses in Apulia, it has a square layout with four lance-shaped bastions at the corners. Enormous connecting galleries run through the inner courtyard to the bastions; on the left the porticoed Pinelli-Pignatelli palace.
Precious is the Catalan-Durazzesque style portal; the Chapel of St. Mark, entirely frescoed by the mannerist painter Gianserio Strafella and, inside the sixteenth-century residential rooms, the remains of the chapel, with fifteenth-century frescoes, found during restoration works.
Information on Angevin Castle – Copertino
Piazza Castello
73043 Copertino (Lecce)
0832930722 – 3391146908
castellodicopertino@beniculturali.it
https://www.castellodicopertino.beniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
