audience hall
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The Angevin Castle In the heart of the medioeval town, the Angevin Castle was designed by Pierre d'Agicourt and Giovanni da Toul in 1279, at the behest of Carlo I d'Angiò, to be an inexpugnable fortress. The Castle is characterized by a peculiar star polygon plan resulting from the superposition of different architectural solutions in different military periods, adding in time new fortifications to the original rectangular three-story Angevin tower that constitutes the central body. The access to the castle was through a driveway bridge and a lowered arch portal on the south bastion. Inside, the guard room and on the wall facing the ancient entrance there are traces of a fresco depicting a Madonna with Child, datable to the end of the 15th century. Then a second rectangular room giving access to the second floor, through a thick wall staircase, and to the internal courtyard, with its irregular trapezoidal shape. The upper floor of the castle was reserved for the private apartments of the king and his entourage. In fact, since the thirteenth century it was the residence of the king's "family waiter" and in the following centuries it hosted the rich feudal lords who took turns in governing the city: Toraldo, Carafa, Acquaviva - D'Aragona. In particular, the large barrel-vaulted hall served as the fulcrum of the political and cultural life of the city in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, when the castle was curiously used as a municipal slaughterhouse, the main entry opens in the west curtain wall through a round portal and a walkway dug into the masonry, connecting directly to the audience hall, today hosting conferences and cultural events. Castello Angioino Via Castello, 25 70042 Mola di Bari, Bari (Italy) |
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