The castle stands on top of a hill at eight hundred metres, on the watershed between two rivers, in the middle of an oak wood. The Normans built it and Frederick the Second put it in order, coming to Basilicata to hunt; his son Manfred later stayed here, and after the defeat of the Swabians the castle passed to the Angevins, who used it as a summer residence.
What to see
The plan is rectangular, with a large courtyard, a tower and rooms on two floors; the walls are of squared stone and the outer faces have no decoration, because the good part is inside. In the courtyard and on the corbels there are carved heads, among them a bearded one that popular tradition calls Barbarossa and which scholars cannot identify with certainty.
In 1266, after the battle in which Manfred died, his wife Helena was brought here as a prisoner and stayed about a year before being moved elsewhere, where she died. It is a story still told at the castle, and it gives these empty rooms a different weight.
Visiting
The castle is in the hamlet of Lagopesole, commune of Avigliano, half an hour by car from Potenza; paid ticket, with a weekly closing day and seasonal hours. An hour.
Our editors' tip
Climb the tower and look around: from here you see the woods and hills of inland Basilicata, without villages and without major roads, and you understand what Frederick the Second was after when he came up here. It was not a border fortress, it was a place to be far from everyone, and it has stayed that way.