Location: Copertino, Apulia Map
Constructed: 16th century
Copertino Castle was located in Copertino, Apulia region of Italy. Copertino Castle was erected in 1540 to protect Salento peninsula, the heel of the Apennine boot. The citadel was completed by the Emperor Charles V under supervision of an architect Evangelista Menga. The complex is famous not only for its military fortifications, but also for its frescoes painted by Gianserio Strafella and many other artists.
The current appearance of the castle is due to a 16th century rehash by the military architect Evangelista Menga. The commissioner of the work, completed in 1540, was Alfonso Castriota from the Branai (Granai) Castriota family (descendant of Vrana Conte) for his niece Maria, wife of his son Antonio, as we still read today on the east curtain of the fortress: pater patruus et socer (father, uncle and father-in-law). In reality, the first nucleus of the fortification should date back to the 13th-14th century as can be seen from the shape of the tall and soaring quadrangular tower. Passed then, as evidenced by the coat of arms on the front of the keep, to Ladislao d'Angiò Durazzo, in 1419 his wife, Maria d'Enghien, gave it as a dowry to his first-bed daughter, Caterina Orsini, who was marrying Tristan Chiaromonte. Caterina's niece, Isabella, in turn brought the castle as a dowry to her husband Federico d'Aragona who donated the city of Copertino - and therefore also the castle.
The castle of
Copertino develops around a square courtyard, and has as many spear
bastions in the four corners. The structure has the classic star
shape of the fortifications of the sixteenth century, although the
oldest nucleus should date back to the thirteenth-fourteenth
century, in the Norman era. The tall, towering quadrangular shaped
tower similar in shape to the tower of the castle of Lecce or the
tower of Leverano should date back to this nucleus.
Even
today the keep is surrounded by a moat along its entire perimeter.
The castle is currently accessed via a stone bridge, which did not
exist in the period when the castle still had a defensive function.
The entrance portal, in Catalan-Durazzo style, is decorated with
monstrous and vegetal figures, with motifs related to the war and
pieces of weapons and armor, a decoration that was well suited to
the nature of the building itself.
In the inner courtyard run
huge galleries connecting to the ramparts, to be better defended in
case of attacks. On the left stands the Pinelli-Pignatelli arcade.
On the right there is the chapel of San Marco, entirely frescoed by
the mannerist painter Gianserio Strafella on behalf of the Genoese
family of the Squarciafico, who had purchased the castle in 1557.
Inside, in the sixteenth-century residential areas, there is the
noble chapel dedicated to Saint Maria Maddalena, with frescoes from
the fifteenth century, found during the restoration works.
In
1886 the castle was declared a national monument and in 1955
subjected to the rules of protection.
The castle is managed
by the Superintendence of Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces
of Lecce, Brindisi and Taranto based in Lecce.