Castello di Dragonara - Castelnuovo della Daunia

The Byzantine city stood a few hundred meters from the river Fortore and the border of Puglia with Molise, very close to the village of Casalnuovo Monterotaro, but in reality in a territorial enclave of Castelnuovo della Daunia. Of the fortified village, razed in 1255 by the troops of Pope Alexander IV, because it had remained faithful to Mandredi of Swabia, today it remains only the Castle.

The building, now in ruins, has undergone various changes in the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, which transformed it into a fortified farm. It has a rectangular plan, with a large inner courtyard, on the north-eastern side has 2 cylindrical towers with a conical base in correspondence to a hollow of the ground that corresponds to the defensive moat. The structure has other 2 square towers, and elements, such as the loopholes, which recall the defensive nature of the artifact originally.

On the eastern side of the castle is visible, between two windows, a limestone ashlar with bas-relief sculptures depicting a human figure on horseback in the act of throwing a rudimentary crossbow against a bull. The scene probably belonged to a Mycaelic narrative cycle. A short distance from the south-western side of the castle is a cylindrical tower, originally without openings, which in recent times was used as a stable. The building is privately owned, and can only be visited externally, by appointment.