Poggiardo (località Vaste), castello
City:
Poggiardo – località Vaste
Object:
Baronial mansion
Address:
Piazza Dante
Property:
Public
Opening times:
Open daily 9.00-12.00; 16.00-19.00; Closed Mondays
Info:
“Penelope 2000” Tourism Services Cooperative, telephone. +39 0836 909811
History:
The first recognizable building stage of the Vaste Baronial Mansion is a four-sided isolated tower, placed in correspondence of a small hill, no more existing today. The structure, with a rectangular plan, had smooth walls, a top crowned by an embattled parapet and without scarp and stores marking torus. The tower access was from the building east side, trough a small opening, protected on the upper part by an archery, supported by two brackets, placed at the same level of the crowning embattled parapet. According to the local chronicles, Vaste was destroyed by Guglielmo il Malo in 1157 and in 1378 it was called “casale dirutum”.
During the first half of the fifteenth century, a small settlement established around the tower, and it was later protected by boundary walls. The structure of the old tower was reinforced by this intervention, with the north and west sides outside the boundary walls. The first residential palace is placed in the south-west corner, close to the boundary walls. This building was composed of a ground floor and a foreground, connected by an external stairway, still existing today, and by a back stairway in the interior.
During about the second half of the fifteenth century the feudatory Ottavio dei Falconi commissioned some works of extension on the North side. A half-open space is realized on the ground floor and above it is placed a rectangular room next to a square space in the North-East corner. It was possible to enter this room through a gate that was the palace main entrance. Additional extensions, expanding the mansion outside the boundary walls, were carried out in the sixteenth century. In the late seventeenth century, with the addition of the open gallery, on the right of the current entrance to the village, the palace acquires its definitive aspect, as it is reported in a description of about the half of the eighteenth century, included in the documents concerning the sale of the feud and the palace to Ippazio de Marco.
During the first half of the fifteenth century, a small settlement established around the tower, and it was later protected by boundary walls. The structure of the old tower was reinforced by this intervention, with the north and west sides outside the boundary walls. The first residential palace is placed in the south-west corner, close to the boundary walls. This building was composed of a ground floor and a foreground, connected by an external stairway, still existing today, and by a back stairway in the interior.
During about the second half of the fifteenth century the feudatory Ottavio dei Falconi commissioned some works of extension on the North side. A half-open space is realized on the ground floor and above it is placed a rectangular room next to a square space in the North-East corner. It was possible to enter this room through a gate that was the palace main entrance. Additional extensions, expanding the mansion outside the boundary walls, were carried out in the sixteenth century. In the late seventeenth century, with the addition of the open gallery, on the right of the current entrance to the village, the palace acquires its definitive aspect, as it is reported in a description of about the half of the eighteenth century, included in the documents concerning the sale of the feud and the palace to Ippazio de Marco.
To see:
Very elegant it is in particular the angular balustrade open gallery, composed by three openings on the short side, and one on the main side; the three upstairs windows present some inscriptions. Inside the palace it is possible to visit the rooms where many archaeological finds, coming from the near excavations, are exhibited. Among the finds the “tesoretto di Vaste” and the “tesserae lusoriae” are very relevant.
Deepenings:
