Torre Maestra Normanna
(Norman Main Tower)
It is called "Norman" mistakenly
as it was built by the Normans only partly;
in fact, even though the second's and third's
floor's vault of the Tower is Gothic, that
style had not been introduced in Southern
Italy in the year 1240 yet.Therefore the
Normans probably built only the first floor
of the building.
During ther Swabian time it was necessary
to make the Tower higher.
In the past the Tower gave shelter to the
people; today it is an ethnographic museum.
The castle, probably
built during the Swabian time and afterwards
made higher by the Angevines, was completed
in the forty-year period between the two
dynasties. Originally the castle was a
four-sided building with five towers;
today there are three towers left.
The North-East tower is adjacent to the
XII-century St Giovanni in Castro Church,
which was included in the castle as its
chapel during the Angevin time.
