The name says most of it: in 1485 the barons of the Kingdom of Naples gathered in the great hall on the upper floor of this castle at Miglionico, and it is the Conspiracy of the Barons held inside those walls that left the building the name it still carries, the one of bad counsel. The fortress was already centuries old by then: it occupies a hill in a commanding spot from the 8th-9th century, and it was enlarged twice, first in 1110, then in 1400.
What to see
The plan is a parallelogram defended by seven towers: the oldest square, others round at the corners, plus two paired towers. The shift from stronghold to lordly house is written in the walls. When the upper floor went up, the battlements of the first castle vanished into the new masonry, but their line can still be made out. The vaults tell the same two-part story: on the ground floor a run of rooms under cross vaults on slender pointed arches, upstairs heavy round arches marking out a barrel vault.
The upper level holds the men's and the women's quarters, the Malconsiglio hall and the Sala della Stella, also called the hall of Spirits: a star-patterned ceiling and strongboxes set into the walls, where treasure and the most valuable documents were kept. The fief passed in turn to Count Alessandro of Andria, to the Sanseverino of Bisignano, to Ettore Fieramosca, the Pignatelli and the Caracciolo; with the Revertera, dukes of Salandra, in 1624 the change into a baronial residence was complete, and a chapel and a large bastioned block were added on the east side.
Visiting
You go in from the north-east: the original doorway faced south and was destroyed in the Basilicata earthquake of 1857, the same shock that brought down the vault of the Malconsiglio hall, never rebuilt. Carved work survives from that old entrance, the Bisignano coat of arms and some lion figures. In the inner courtyard the digs of 2006 and 2007 uncovered lime-slaking tanks of the 17th-18th century and, below them, a phase of occupation of the hill between the 8th and the 3rd century BC, with a dwelling and several burials; outside the walls four earth-cut graves came to light holding crouched bodies, of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The castle houses the Centro di Documentazione e Ricerca per la Storia del Medioevo.
Our editors' tip
Before you climb, stop in the courtyard and follow the horizontal line of walled-up battlements with your eyes: that was the height at which the first castle stopped, a single storey above ground, and everything higher was added later. Then ask for the Sala della Stella, in the north-east corner of the upper floor: a modern gangway leads into it, and the ceiling is the best thing in the building. If the room looks familiar, it may well be: scenes from Brunello Rondi's Il demonio and Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman were shot here.