Upper Floor

The upper floor of Castel del Monte follows the structure and distribution of the rooms on the ground floor. Before the looting that deprived the castle of its marbles, mosaic decorations and sculptures, the walls of the rooms were covered by refined marble slabs, up to the frames. The columns are made of marble as well, with three shafts connected by a capital with plant motifs. A seating shelf runs low along the walls of each room. Coral breccia, used in the finishing of doors and windows and in the niches flanking the fireplaces, grants the rooms refinement and elegance. Imaginative keystones decorate the ceilings. In the lunettes we can recognize the Roman building technique of opus reticulatum, which identifies a regular lattice of quadrangular bricks arranged diagonally.

Compared to the ground floor, the rooms on the first floor are brighter due to the Gothic three-light and double-lancet windows which open outwards and the rounded single-lancet windows and French windows which open onto the internal courtyard.

The keystone of this room is adorned with four fantastic animals, carved in limestone, biting each other in a circular motion, perhaps evoking the unstoppable flow of time.