Castel del Monte

By Antonio Malara

For several years I've enjoyed my time as a photographer for a local team of rhythm gymnastics. I followed the team during competitions in my city and also in regional and national finals. It was pleasant for me make the little girls happy with nice pictures but besides this I also planned what I call from now on, "RG spin off trip". What I mean is that thanks to the competitions the team and I could visit the coolest place near the various cities where the races took place. 
One of the place that I really wanted to see was Castel del Monte, and we did it in 2012.

This structure is in the mid of the region of Puglia, in southern Italy. It is built on the top of the hill, maybe to be a castle-fort but actually no one knows what it really is and in fact there are studies about this. This castle has an octagonal form, height towers, separate by tall wall in the corners, inside in the center there's a courtyard. This structure is full of symbolisms, like various part of the building that reminds to number eight.

The place has two floor connected by small stairs. Mainly inside you can find spoiled rooms, some small some bigger. What I really liked was the courtyard where you have the feeling to stay in a really ancient place, surrounded by height walls made of stones. Another interesting thing to do here is to get the center of the courtyard and look on top. If you don't fall you can see that the octagonal walls are asymmetrical, I notice this looking at the pics I took. Of course this is the sing that the structure has been build with old instruments.

The reason why I wanted to see this place is strange, ok its a beautiful place for many reasons but for me it was some kind of unreal place. I don't remember when and where I saw Castle del Monte for the first time, maybe a movie or a reportage, but I always connected this place with dreams. Perhaps I really dreamed this place (but I think as a kid) and in some ways it filled inside me like an imaginary place. I always had this feeling about, so when I realized I could really see it, I've been excited at the idea. Once there I hoped to "taste" this dreamlike feeling but maybe because I was little sleepy I only looked about the design and structure building, I failed on the goal to see something more and something beyond the real world.

P.S. later talking to my family, they told me that we've been there when I was really young. We just took a look from the car because there was a bad weather. So maybe I had some random memories about that.

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Photo: Antonio Malara
Camera: Nikon D3s-raw files edited on camera raw