The castle of Trani

The Castle of Trani is one of the most important and, despite the suffered mutations, one of the best legible among the castels erected from the emperor Federico II of Swabia to guardianship of his favorite Kingdom of Sicily, inherited by his mother, the princess Norman Constanza of Altavilla. The castel, with the sequence of the dynasties, first to the Angioinis, then to the Aragonese ones, it was always, up to our days, of government ownership, except a brief period (1385-1419). Preserving unchanged the strategic value of the position, in the XVI century, with the advent of the fire weapons, the castle was adjusted to the new defensive techniques, answering to the diffused demand of re-fortification of the Mediterranean coasts, threatened by the Turkish advance. In the XIX century, was turned to provincial central jail, destination stopped only in 1974. Restored by the Superintendence for the Environmental, Architectural, Artistic and Historical heritage of Puglia,  it has been open to the public in 1998.