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This blog can be found at this link, The Norman castle of Monteserico.
Welcome to our article,
Dear readers, because this original article is a long article, it has been split in two parts in blogger, this is part one, which will by followed next time with part two.
Anyhow, we have called this article, The
Norman castle of Monteserico, since The Normans first they fought around this
castle to conquer it and then used it to run their conquest in Southern Italy
around 1040 AD; we could have called it, ‘the castle of Federico II’, since he
used this castle as sit for the “magister massarium Apuliae” while he was
master of Southern Italy around 1220-1250; today we call it the castle of
Monteserico, because that is how this zone of southern Italy is called.
So, let us talk about the castle
of Monteserico, in Genzano di Lucania; it may seem strange, but the town of Genzano di
Lucania has two castles, one is in the town itself, which has been modified and
today is used as the Town Hall (Municipio), it does not look like a castle anymore, since it has been modified several times, some people refer to this castle as De Marinis palace. Anyhow, today we are going to talk
about Monteserico castle in the country; we need to say that the name of “Monteserico”
in Genzano, not only refer to this castle but it also refer to the county
itself; in fact this name would cover about three quarter of Genzano territory.
Monteserico castle
is a very old castle that a long time ago had a village of its own; some people
believe that the Normans built it, but most people don’t agree with it. Anyhow,
the castle was there, and the Normans may have modified it and used this
castle, while they were ruling over their conquest in Southern Italy.
Now if we connect
what historically is known today, we know that this castle of Monteserico was
there before the modern Genzano came into existence; we say the modern Genzano
because there is some evidence that Genzano existed in the Roman times, as it
is mentioned in the archive of Potenza that two martyrs Donato and Secondo were
executed in Genzano around 258 AD; see, Genzano di Lucania history, therefore, the town
of Genzano existed even then.
Anyhow, let us talk
about Monteserico castle, this castle was completely independent from the town
of Genzano di Lucania, in fact the modern town of Genzano came into existence
well after the Norman invasion of Southern Italy. We can say this because even
though today Monteserico Castle is situated in the territory of Genzano, the
founder of the existing Genzano came from this castle. History tells us that
this was the castle of queen Aquilina Sancia, who lived there before Genzano town
was rebuilt and Aquilina Sancia is said to be the founder of Genzano.
Anyhow, nobody
knows exactly who started to build this castle of Monteserico, and it has many
stories about its origin, what we know today is that this was one of the main
castles that the Normans used to rule over Southern Italy in the beginning of
the second millennium, and that in this part of southern Italy there have been
many wars and this castle has had many owners, another historically well-known
owner was “Frederick II” about 1194-1250, check the links below.
Frederick II. of Hohenstaufen - YouTube
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor - Wikipedia, the free ...
Frederick the Second, 1194-1250 -
Google Books
Some other owner of the castle we will try to
mention in our text here under. Anyhow today it happens that this castle has
been restored to safe keep the heritage of this part of Southern Italy; but it
is a very quiet country place, it seems almost forgotten except for the people
that work around in the fields that produce some of the best durum wheat that
is used to make pasta and other wheat products.
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About the castle of Monteserico
Dear readers, I must say that in this blog, I am not able to upload the photos that I have used in the original article, so please click on the link to see them. The Norman castle of Monteserico.
There you will find many photos including the inauguration of Monteserico Castle after the restoration, where the names of people that have contributed and other things are shown.
Monteserico castle
seems to be built different from other castles. It is shaped rectangular or
almost square, one can say that it is more a military fortress than a real
castle; it is built in stones of every shape and size, and today it would be
hard to find builders or tradesmen that are able to build something like that, even
though there are some tradesmen as we can see from the entry pathway that looks
almost new, and it is almost identical to the castle masonry; however we know
that it has been added later, because this castle had a trench around it a long
time ago, for reasons of defense, but this added entry pathway makes it easy to
enter the castle, so, it is an addition and it looks good. Anyhow, these two
photos one above and one below are there to show you how the castle is like
today.
Anyhow, let us look
at some history of this castle of Monteserico, but before we do that, we need to point out that the castle
of Monteserico looks exactly like one of the Norman castles in Normandy France; let me explain, one day I ask this French army captain about
the castle in Normandy that looks like Monteserico castle, and he said to me, that the Normans have
built only two castles, one in France and one in Southern Italy, see our hub, Genzano the
Lucania history; and some other evidence that we are going
to quote from.
Genzano di Lucania
history,
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
The Norman conquest of southern Italy spanned most of the 11th and 12th
centuries, involving many battles and many independent players conquering
territories of their own. Only later were these territories in southern Italy united as the Kingdom of Sicily, which included
not only the island of Sicily, but also the entire southern third of the Italian Peninsula (save Benevento, which they did briefly
hold on two occasions) as well as the archipelago of Malta
and parts of North Africa.
Opportunistic
bands of Normans successfully established a foothold in Southern Italy (the Mezzogiorno). Probably the
result of returning pilgrims' stories, the Normans entered the Mezzogiorno as warriors in 1017 at the latest. In
999, according to Amatus of
Montecassino, pilgrims returning from Jerusalem called in at the port of Salerno when a Saracen attack occurred. The Normans
fought so valiantly that Prince Guaimar III begged
them to stay, but they refused and instead offered to tell others back home of
the prince's request. William of Apulia tells
that, in 1016, pilgrims to the shrine of the Archangel Michael at Monte Gargano were met
by Melus of Bari, a Lombard freedom-fighter,
who persuaded them to return with more warriors to help throw off the Byzantine rule, which they did.
(End of quote)
In some written
history of Genzano and this castle of Monteserico, there is this famous Norman
leader (Roberto il Guiscardo) Robert Guiscard that is said to own the castle of
Monteserico as also some battles that happened around this castle, here is a
link about Robert Guiscard.
Robert Guiscard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From what we have been able to learn, it is that the Normans have used this castle extensively and perhaps modified it or partly built it, and since Robert Guiscard (Duke of Apulia) was there, we know that this castle has been the Norman castle of Southern Italy from where the Norman ruled over their conquest.
Historic event in brief
Now we want to talk
about the history of the castle of Monteserico. The history during the first
millennium of this castle is not known much, but it is believed that there were
some caves that the shepherds and other inhabitant of this region used for
themselves, before the castle was built. Some people say that this part of
Southern Italy has seen many battles; they even suggest that Spartacus with his
other slave friend have been here, while they were in Southern Italy, as
history tells us when the slaves rebelled and formed their own army under their
leader Spartacus, they went to live near the Ionian Sea, now Monteserico is
part of the territories that runs into the Ionian Sea through the river Bradano
and its tributaries, there is another story why Spartacus could have come this
way; you see in Genzano town even today there is this chasm called the Greek
chasm, the only thing this can mean is that there was a Greek colony living in
this chasm; and Spartacus being Greek for sure was attracted from this Greek
community, so, even Spartacus could have come in Monteserico territory.
Now let us go back
to talk about Monteserico castle; as we know everything can starts small and
then starts growing, so, some people say that at the beginning, this could have
been a Roman villa used for holiday, then turned as a monastery of the Greek
orthodox religion. Then as the time went by and many wars and other things
happened around this place it kept growing until we find that the Normans at
the beginning of the second millennium have this castle, and they rule over
most of southern Italy from this castle of Monteserico.
After that the
castle of Monteserico changed many owners, and some of which we are going to
mention as soon as we get around; one of the most known of these people from
the inhabitant of Genzano is Aquilina Sancia queen of Monteserico. The reason
for this is that while this Aquilina Sancia was there she built a monastery of
the Clarisse in Genzano and this monastery attracted people that lived around
to move and live around this monastery, for this reason Genzano town is said
that Aquilina Sancia is the founder of the existing Genzano, today we know that
this is not correct, since there is historic evidence that the town of Genzano
has existed since the Roman times.
I believe that this blog is becoming too long, so, e will continue to write about the Norman castle of Monteserico and more historic events, in our next blog, see you then.
To see more click on this link. The Norman castle of Monteserico.
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