The first Norman capital of southern Italy, Emperor Frederick II’s favourite residence, the setting of five papal councils: Melfi, at the foot of the extinct volcano Monte Vulture, is the most history-laden day out from Matera – and for wine lovers the gateway to Aglianico del Vulture.
Melfi stands at 530 metres on a volcanic terrace, with around 16,700 inhabitants. Above the old town rises one of the largest castles in southern Italy, and below it runs a ring of walls more than four kilometres long. If the Norman and Swabian south interests you, there is more here than anywhere else in Basilicata.
What makes Melfi special
In 1059 Pope Nicholas II recognised Robert Guiscard here as Duke of Apulia and Calabria – the formal beginning of Norman rule in southern Italy. Between 1059 and 1137 five popes held their councils in Melfi. And in 1231 Frederick II issued the Constitutiones Augustales in this town, the „Constitutions of Melfi“: a unified code of law for the Kingdom of Sicily, regarded as one of the early forerunners of state legislation in Europe. Today Melfi is a quiet provincial town – you have to know what happened here.
What to see in Melfi
Norman-Swabian castle
The castle was laid out by the Normans at the end of the 11th century, extended under Frederick II and later altered by the Angevins, the Caracciolo and the Doria. Ten towers still stand, seven rectangular and three pentagonal. Frederick II came for the hunting: in the woods of the Vulture he practised falconry, on which he wrote his famous „De arte venandi cum avibus“.
National Archaeological Museum of the Melfese
The museum inside the castle shows finds from prehistory to the Roman period. Its centrepiece is the Rapolla sarcophagus, an Asia Minor marble sarcophagus of the 2nd century AD found in 1856 in the territory of Rapolla – a piece of a quality you would not expect in a provincial town.
Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta
The cathedral was begun in 1076 and continued under the Norman kings. The interior was recast in baroque forms in the 18th century; the Romanesque bell tower of 1153 survives, standing as a separate tower beside the church.
Town walls and the Porta Venosina
The ring of walls is more than four kilometres long and rarely so complete anywhere in southern Italy. It grew over centuries, from Byzantine through Norman and Swabian to Aragonese times. The best known of the surviving gates is the Porta Venosina.
Rock church of Santa Margherita
Outside the centre lies a 13th-century church cut into the tuff, with medieval frescoes. One of the scenes is traditionally read as a depiction of Frederick II with his family – whether that is correct is disputed among scholars.
Getting there from Matera
About 105 to 113 kilometres by car and roughly an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters, on the SS 655 Bradanica towards the Vulture. Melfi does have a station on the Potenza–Rocchetta–Foggia line, but from Matera that means several changes and long waits; for a day trip the car is the only sensible choice.
Park below the castle or in the larger spaces at the edge of the old town, for instance at Largo Sant’Antonio. The old town is hilly, cobbled and steep; allow two to three hours for castle, museum and cathedral.
Best time to visit
May, June, September and October are the most pleasant; in winter it is cold and often foggy at 530 metres. The best month is October, when „Ottobre Melfitano“ takes place, with the Sagra della Varola, the Vulture chestnut festival, at which chestnuts are roasted in the perforated pan called a „varola“, and the Giornate Medievali with falconry in honour of Frederick II. Exact dates change from year to year. Fixed dates are the patronal feast of Sant’Alessandro on 9 February and the feast of Pentecost, which recalls the „Pasqua di sangue“ of 1528: a procession at daybreak with a statue on an ox cart and 16th-century costumes.
A day in Melfi
Castle and museum in the morning, a break in the old town at midday, cathedral, walls and rock church in the afternoon. On the way back, the lakes of Monticchio on Monte Vulture are worth a stop, or a detour to the wine villages of Barile and Rionero in Vulture. Melfi also combines well with Venosa, 23 kilometres away.
