Castel del Monte - Andria

The most impressive and best-Known of the Apulia castles. In 1240 Frederik II began the construction of his hunting residence. It has an octagonal shape and each tower is also octagonal. Historians have debated the purpose of the building and it has been suggested that it was intended as a hunting lodge. The octagonal is really unusual in castle design and because of that another theory developed: the octagon is an intermediate symbol between a square (representing the earth) and a circle (representing the sky). The site is protected as a World Heritage Site by Unesco. It also appears on the Italian version of the one-cent euro coin.