Castello Tramontano (Tramontano Castle), Matera

There are no politics like feudal politics. One day, in 1506, King Ferdinand II of Naples decided to remove some baronies from counts in his kingdom and give them to Spanish nobles. Ferdinand liked Spanish nobles. He was a Spanish noble himself. When he learned of the King's plan, Gian Carlo Tramontano, Count of Matera, sprang into action.

Gian Carlo and his wife, Elisabetta, went to see the King. Elisabetta gave the King's wife a gold necklace and pearls worth 25,000 ducats, and Gian Carlo kept his county. Better yet, now he could finish his castle. He raised taxes.

The tax thing was a bridge too far for the people of Matera. They were already on edge about the Count's habit of "Droit de Seigneur" (right of the lord), the bedding of every new bride in the county on her wedding night.

One day in 1514, as the couple was leaving holy mass at the Cathedral of Matera, angry peasants set upon the duke, stripping him and beating him to death. The countess escaped unharmed. Church bells rang, and work on the castle stopped. The Count's castle remained unfinished. In 2008, restoration work on the building and the surrounding park began.

The Tramontano Castle was constructed in the Aragonese style, with a central keep flanked by two lower towers. The towers and keep have been round with crenelated tops. The walls are also crenelated. The goal of the restoration is to renew the moat and the tufa walls. The project is financed by lottery funds.