A castle that was never finished – because the city killed the man who was building it. What stands is the stump of a far larger design.
The building
The Castello Tramontano stands on a hill above the upper town, visible from afar and clearly set apart from the rest of the townscape. Count Giancarlo Tramontano had it built at the beginning of the sixteenth century. What survives is a massive keep and two round towers – from a complex that was planned to be considerably larger.
Why it stayed unfinished
Tramontano was considered a hard master who burdened the city with levies. In 1514 he was killed by citizens of Matera; construction was halted and never resumed. The lane where it is said to have happened still carries a name that recalls it.
The castle is therefore less a monument to feudal power than to its failure – and a building that tells its own story more plainly than many finished ones.
Visiting
A park surrounds the castle; from there you look out over the roofs of the upper town. The interior is open only at times – exhibitions and events are held there, but there is no permanent museum.
The way up leads slightly uphill out of the centre and takes about twenty minutes from the main square. As a destination for the late afternoon it is worth it: the park has shade, which is rare in Matera.
Read on
- The old town of Matera – the upper town below
- The palaces of the upper town – the city’s secular buildings
- The rioni of the Sassi – the Rione Castelvecchio below
