Things to see · Castles and fortresses
Norman Tower of Tricarico
Tricarico (Matera)
Norman Tower of Tricarico is in Tricarico, province of Matera. Opening hours: Open during special openings and events: ask the Tricarico Town Hall. Admission: To be checked when visiting.
- To be checked when visiting.
- Open during special openings and events: ask the Tricarico Town Hall.
About this place
The Norman tower is the symbol of Tricarico. Standing 27 metres tall, with walls more than five metres thick in places, it rises on the highest rocky spur in the town, in the Monte district.
History
The tower was the keep of the castle. The site was already a Lombard citadel in 849, then a Byzantine fortress. With the Normans, from 1080, it became the seat of a county, held for a long time by the Sanseverino family. In 1333 the castle was donated to the Poor Clares, who opened one of the first monasteries in Basilicata there, while the tower remained part of the town’s defences until the 17th century. In the 1970s it was reinforced, and part of the castle was restored in 2013.
What to see
• The four floors stacked one on top of the other, designed to hold out on their own in case of siege.
• The «scarpa» (sloping base) at the foot, added in the Angevin period, and the arrow slits.
• The terrace, from which the view reaches the Basento and Bradano valleys, the Lucanian Dolomites, Matera and as far as the Gulf of Taranto.
Useful information
• The tower has been featured several times among the FAI’s «Luoghi del Cuore» (Places of the Heart, the Italian National Trust’s public-vote heritage campaign).
• In the historic centre there is also the Cathedral and the Arab quarters of the Ràbata and Saracena.
