Castello di Gravina, Hohenstaufen castle in Gravina in Puglia, Italy

Castello di Gravina is a ruined rectangular castle, 58.5 by 29 metres, built of dressed stone with four flanking towers and underground rooms. It had three levels, of which only parts of the perimeter walls and base remain. Inside, a large courtyard was half covered and half open, with doors leading to stables, kitchens, storerooms and dining rooms.

Emperor Frederick II commissioned its construction between 1223 and 1231 as a hunting lodge and administrative center for his court. The fortress was part of his broader effort to consolidate power across southern Italy through strategically positioned strongholds.

Frederick II used the castle mainly for his hunting parties and for meetings of the Curia. The mezzanine held rooms for falconry and for the service staff, while the upper floor was reserved for the imperial apartments, lit by carved double-arched windows.

Only parts of the perimeter walls and the base of the three-storey building remain, so the site is visited as a ruin rather than a roofed residence. On entering, the great courtyard is half covered and half open, with the doorways to the ground-floor rooms around it. The upper floors, reached by the great royal staircase, no longer exist.

The two-light bifora windows of the imperial apartments were carved from fine dressed stone, and from them one still sees the town of Gravina, the Lucanian Apennines and much of the Murge. The castle was built of mazzaro stone between 1223 and 1231.