A walk through history with emperors and queens
The castle is a living testimony to the intermingling of cultures and important personalities that succeeded one another here over the centuries, reinforcing its role as a vantage point overlooking the Mediterranean and a cradle for trade.
Notices(2)
- Respect of the chosen entry time
We remind visitors that it is mandatory to show up at the site’s entrance exactly at the time chosen during the purchase.
- free admission
The first Sunday of each month access to all institutes and places of culture is free, including, in the absence of a separate exhibition itinerary or of a separate ticket, the spaces in which exhibitions or temporary exhibitions are held. Admission will also be free on the following days: 25th April; 2nd June; 4th November.
Services(6)
- Audioguide
- Bookshop
- Disabled access
- Guided Tours
- Info Point
- Pets allowed with carrier
Reductions(4)
For REDUCED and FREE tickets, proof of the right to use these tickets will have to be shown. Where the visitor fails to produce such documentation at the ticket office, a FULL-PRICE ticket will have to be purchased.
Free
13types- •European Union tourist guides in the exercise of their professional activity, presenting a valid licence issued by the competent authority
- •Tour interpreters from the European Union working alongside the guide, upon presentation of a valid licence issued by the competent authority
- •To the staff of the Ministry of Culture
- •Members of I.C.O.M. (International Council of Museums)
- •To public and private school groups of the European Union alongside their teachers, subjected to booking and in the quota established by the head of the institution or cultural site.
- •Visitors under the age of eighteen. Under-twelves must be accompanied by an adult
- •Lecturers and students on degree courses, specialist degree courses or post-graduate specialisation and PhD courses in the following faculties: architecture, conservation of cultural heritage, education sciences or literature and philosophy with an archaeological or historical-artistic focus. The same benefits are due to teachers and students of corresponding universities or courses, present in the European Union States.
- •Teachers and students enrolled in Fine Arts Academies or corresponding institutes of the European Union, by showing their enrolment certificate for the current academic year
- •Teaching staff -permanent school or with a fixed-term contract- of the Italian school, upon presentation of a suitable certificate issued by the educational institutions. The certificate is annual and valid for the academic year in progress.
- •Disabled persons and one family member or companion who can show their membership to health and care services.
- •To the operators of voluntary associations who carry out, on the basis of existing agreements with the Ministry, activities to promote knowledge of cultural heritage.
- •Italian and foreign scholars for study or research purposes certified by Italian or foreign school or university institutions, academies, research and culture institutes as well as by the Ministry, for particular and justified needs, the Directors can allow individual subjects who request it free admission for specific periods.
- •Free entry to state cultural sites is permitted to teachers and students of AFAM (Higher Education in Art and Music) schools, upon presentation of the appropriate forms.
Reduced
2types- •EU citizens aged between 18 and 25 (the age limit is considered exceeded from the day following the completion of the 25th year of age).
- •To citizens of countries outside the European Union, on condition of reciprocity.
Puglia Museums Card
1Type- •The subscription is NAME-SPECIFIC. It allows unlimited admissions for 6 months in all the museums of the Regional Directorate of Museums of Puglia. The Taranto National Archaeological Museum (MArTA) is NOT included.
Museum Card
1Type- •The subscription is NAME-SPECIFIC. It allows unlimited entry for 6 months in ONE of the museums of the Regional Directorate of Museums of Puglia. Taranto National Archaeological Museum (MArTA) is NOT included.
Description
The Swabian Castle of Bari: symbol of conquest
Symbolic building of the city and of the history of Bari, with its imposing trapezoidal structure stands in the oldest part of the city, between the Cathedral and the docks. Commissioned by Ruggero II to seal the Norman conquest of Bari, it was built in 1131 on a pre-existing settlement from the Byzantine era. Severely damaged during the reign of William the Bad, it was rebuilt by Frederick II of Swabia in the first decades of the 13th century. Signs of the intervention ordered by the Stupor Mundi can still be seen today in the majestic entrance portal, in the atrium and in the loggia between architraves, cornices, corbels and capitals. In the second half of the 13th century, King Charles I of Anjou initiated the renovation of the north wing, adding three elegant Gothic mullioned windows facing on to the sea.
Women in power
The castle had its heyday during the 16th century with Isabella of Aragon and her daughter Bona Sforza. The two women transformed the austere military structure into a refined Renaissance residence with both a defensive and residential function. After adapting the exterior to be able to respond to the new assault techniques and the use of firearms (the moat and massive outer walls were built), they introduced the lifestyle of a Renaissance court inside, attracting men of letters, poets and artists. The architectural renovation can be seen in the rearrangement of the inner courtyard, the Palatine Chapel and the construction of the scenic double flight of stairs leading to the finely decorated rooms on the piano nobile (the main floor used by aristrocracy).
The legacy
After being used as a prison during the Bourbon era and a barracks in the 20th century, the castle was taken over by the public administration and became the headquarters of the Apulia and Basilicata Monuments and Galleries Superintendency. The interior spaces house various collections: Renaissance-era ceramics found in the midden of the castle, unrelated stone materials (stonework transported by ice far from its place of origin) and jewellery and the wooden models of the castles of Bari, Barletta and Monopoli dating back to the mid-eighteenth century. The two excavation areas on the ground floor contain structures of the settlement and a small Byzantine church, probably that of St. Apollinaris, with an adjoining burial ground.
The Gipsoteca
Inaugurated and opened to the public in 2011, the Gipsoteca contains an extraordinary collection of plaster casts of Puglia's most important monuments and places of worship. The casts were made by sculptors Pasquale Duretti and Mario Sabatelli on the occasion of the Regional Ethnographic Exhibition organised in Rome in 1911 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy.
Forecast
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