Castello di Carafa

The plan of the complex is essentially trapezoidal, with towers at the four corners and a clear division into three main levels: a subterranean area and two floors above ground used historically for storage, stabling, and living quarters. The superstructure reflects successive building phases and combines stonework consistent with medieval construction and later alterations.

Two of the corner towers are circular and rest on sloping bases that widen toward the ground, a feature intended to strengthen the lower walls. On one side stands a pentagonal, crenellated bastion set on a curved base that preserves a footprint suggestive of an earlier tower. That bastion was added during late fifteenth-century works to increase the castle’s defensive capacity.

A deep chamber beneath the courtyard reaches roughly nine metres down and connects with the cistern and cellar system; from the lowest cellars up to the battlements the vertical difference measures about eighteen metres. The lower room maintains an even temperature near 18 degrees Celsius, reflecting the thermal stability of the underground spaces.

The main entrance leads into a reception hall covered by a barrel vault, a curved ceiling that gives access to an internal courtyard around which the building volumes are arranged. Two large residential apartments and adjoining rooms for servants face the courtyard, while storage areas and stable spaces open directly onto it, with the cellars positioned below these service rooms.

The courtyard is entirely paved with locally quarried stone and contrasts with the paving of the entrance hall and approach. The paved surface forms a rhomboid roughly seventeen metres on a side and includes bands of three rows of red brick, quadrants filled with river pebbles, and a subtle inclination designed to channel water toward internal collection points.

The paving displays a complex geometric design. At the center sits an eighteen-sided polygon from which irregular pentagonal “petals” radiate, each joined externally to an irregular hexagon. The outer vertices of the petals form a nine-pointed star, and two such nine-pointed stars are set within a circle. A surrounding circle contains the first, and dashed lines within the outer ring accompany a brick pattern that encodes numbers.

From that central circle, lines run outward aligned with the cardinal points to form a cross; on the north–south arm bricks are laid to indicate arrow forms, while on the east–west arm brick arrangements create tetrahedral motifs. The whole composition can be divided along thirteen axes, five of which coincide with the principal circle while eight additional axes lie perpendicular on the eastern and western sectors. On the paving’s left side are nineteen small arches, and on the right appear circular and rhombic shapes. A measured angle of 23.5 degrees separates the central axis from guide lines that point toward the deformed outer edge.

Brickwork is used as a constructional and symbolic device. The date 1564 is represented twice at the center by courses of solid bricks set on edge to form numerals, and brick distribution serves to convey numbers within the geometric scheme. Today parts of the complex have been described as in a ruined condition, and the castle is in municipal ownership; some internal features remain visible in situ while other areas reflect later reuse, notably the nineteenth-century remodelling that transformed the stronghold into a residence.