Emperor Castle

The Castello dell'Imperatore is the most important architectural testimony in central Italy as regards the fortresses that the emperor Frederick II of Swabia ordered to raise. It was carried out in the XIII century and its architecture recalls the most famous castles built by this emperor in Southern Italy.

The realization of this building probably took place between 1242 and 1248 under the supervision of the architect Riccardo da Lentini and with the collaboration of the emperor's son Federico d'Antiochia.
At the time, this stronghold played the key-role to garrison the Italian city states by creating a huge military structure between the Italian territory of the Po Valley (Vicenza, Mantova, Parma, Pavia, Milano), that restlessly fought against the Empire, and the Tuscan territories, divided by the fights between Ghibellines and Guelphs.
The latter were hostile to the German monarchy and loyal to the pope.
The architecture of this imposing castle keeps into account the Roman-Gothic style to a certain extent, since this is the style which many other cathedrals and churches were built with. In effect, the traditional white and green colours are present in the form of the alberese limestone and the green limestone from Prato. It has a squared layout with four towers at the corners corresponding to the four cardinal points. Yet, the first Renaissance details can be discerned and they are an evidence by the fact that the project, which had never been finished, announced the momentous turning point which was about to happen in Tuscany. The emperor, moreover, wanted to be the protagonist of this change.
The political situation of that time was particularly favourable to the emperor, to whom Pisa was a close and faithful ally. Florence, instead, was under the control of the emperor's son. Besides, the Alberti family of Prato were reliable allies to the emperor and Tuscany was an interesting point of departure for the emperor's "absolutization" of Italy.
Nevertheless, his deed had never been achieved because a league of the northern city-states defeated Parma after his death in 1250, which early trimmed down the German monarchy's expansion projects.
Once the Guelphs established their power again, the castle experienced a mocking fate. It became the prison of those Ghibellines who had celebrated its construction.
The Florentines, who created the traditional Guelph embattlements as a scorn to its previous builders, finished the forecastle. Most of it was destroyed during the Fascism with the aim to build a "via dei Fori Imperiali".
The Castello dell' Imperatore has been recently restored and it has been open to the public since 1975.