Melfi

Melfi stands beneath Mount Vulture in northern Basilicata, its great castle dominating the town and the roads across the surrounding hills. Norman rulers made it a centre of power, and Emperor Frederick II rebuilt the fortress. In 1231 his Constitutions of Melfi proclaimed a new body of law for the Kingdom of Sicily from within its walls.

During the war between France and Charles V, a French army captured and sacked Melfi in 1528, killing many of its inhabitants. Imperial forces recovered the town, and in 1531 Charles granted it to the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria as a principality. The Doria family adapted the castle as a noble residence, adding the life of a princely household to the long history of the fortress.