Fortified Area of the Medieval Castle
Photo: Ignazio Caloggero
Multimedia map with all interested sites: Segesta Archive
Around the end of the XNUMXth and beginning of the XNUMXth century, a feudal mansion was built at the highest point of the site, as well as, in its immediate vicinity, a triapsidal church.
During the first phase of construction of the dungeon, pre-existing structures were incorporated and reused: 'late Roman' walls and rooms from the Islamic period of the town (early 1220th century). A few decades after its foundation (1250-XNUMX ca.), the building was renovated (perhaps following a fire) and enlarged with the construction of new rooms (west side). Around the middle of the XNUMXth century, first the village and then the castle were abandoned and never reoccupied.
Historical information:
1293 - castrum Calatabarberi - Acta Siculo-Aragonensia, I, 1, pp. 231-232,
doc. CCLXXVI.
1328 - fines Calatabarbari they are cited as limits of the territory of the hamlet of Arcudaci - ASPA, Archivio Belmonte 1038, e. 15 (Bresc Bresc 1977, p. 352 and n. 13).
1442 (April 26) - three inhabitants of Calatafimi have a church built in monte vocato de Barberu… sub vocabulo Sancii Leu - ASTP, notary Milo (Bresc Bresc 1977, p. 352). ,
1558 - church of Santa Maria - Fazello, I, VII, IV, p. 346.
The dungeon (19,5 x 17,5 m in its final phase) was built according to a precise architectural project, with a careful and differentiated choice (depending on the use) of the stones, coatings and flooring. It was divided into two floors and was not to exceed ten meters in height. The ground floor was accessed from an entrance on the western side and to the upper floor via a wooden staircase on the eastern side.
The rooms on the two floors were covered with barrel vaults and were articulated around a central brick courtyard overlooked by the entrances on the ground floor and the mullioned windows on the first floor. The courtyard has a circular 'manhole' in the center from which a clay pipe departs which conveyed rainwater not outwards but certainly towards the cistern located inside the castral enclosure.
The castle, rediscovered thanks to the archaeological excavation conducted by A. Molinari of the Department of Archeology and History of the Arts of the University of Siena, was included in the tour of the Segesta park, after a gradual restoration aimed at the conservation of the monumental structures.
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
Photo: By User: Matthias Süßen - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22000331 / Ignazio Caloggero
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