Barletta, art, nature and a surprise

The original seat of the castle dates back to Norman times, while Frederick occupied the castle fom 1225 to 1228. The additions under Frederick II are witnessed by the building placed on the southern side, marked by two windows bearing, carved on the lunettes, the imperial eagle with a hare in its talons, a recurring motive of the Sweabian iconography. During the Crusades the castle became a regular shelter for knights returning or departing for the Holy Land. It was here that Frederick II held the famous Diet, given his imminent departure on the sixth Crusade, which included his directives for the time he was away and specific instructions should he die. On initiation of the works, Frederick announced the birth of Corrado in the presence of barons and other prelates.

The current building appears as a complex structure formed by two clearly separate parts, the typcally Romanesque front and a part at the rear built in the Gothic style, thus attesting a very long building process. In 1140 the construction of a cathedral with three naves and three apses was started, later enlarged- after 1307 in the aerea of the presbytery with the construction of an additional body covered with ribbed cross vaults and leading into a huge Gothic choir with a polygonal apse, an ambulatory and radial chapels. The building in fact had become insufficient to meet the needs of the population.