The Castello di Manfredonia was built and expanded during the times of the Hohenstaufen , the Anjou and the Aragón family. The first documents mentioning the fortress are dated back to 1279, which refers to the recruitment of workers to begin construction. Nevertheless, it is possible that King Charles I of Naples had the fortress built using facilities that already existed and were integrated into the new building.
The first renovations were made in 1442, when the Aragón House provided the complex with an enclosure wall as part of a larger coastal fortification project, which enclosed the previously existing complex.
In the following century, a pentagonal bastion was added to the west, which enclosed one of the round towers and was intended to protect the complex in the event of an enemy attack from the city side. The bastion is called Dell'Annunziata because of a marble relief over the outer corridor depicting a scene of the Annunciation.
Nevertheless, in 1620 the fortress was forced to capitulate under the attack of the Turks, a fact that clearly showed the weakness of the fortress: the lack of sufficient artillery and the absence of protective parapets that would have guaranteed the integrity of the defenders were two of the reasons for the need for this surrender.
After the fortress lost its defensive function in the 18th century, it was used as a barracks; its west tower served as a prison. Today the Museo archaeologico nazionale di Manfredonia is housed there.
Architecture
Originally the complex had a four-sided shape, enclosed in a wall ring with five square towers, four at the corners of the complex and the fifth probably near the main entrance on the northeast side. Later, the four corner towers were integrated into four larger round towers, whereas only a few traces remained of the fifth.
In the outer wall, which was built during the time of the House of Aragón, four cylindrical towers, which were lower than the inner ones, were placed, which were more suitable for the technical defense of that time. From an architectural point of view, a lot goes back to the construction of the cannons, which was typical for the Hohenstaufen in their regularity and geometric linearity.
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