The Rhetoric and Revelations of Scale at Lucera’s Fortress (1269–84): State Building in the Angevin Kingdom of Naples

Abstract

This article examines the fortress of Lucera in northern Apulia (1269–84) as a sign of state building in late medieval southern Italy. First, I assess the completed complex as a physical marker of Angevin territorial consolidation in the newly conquered Kingdom of Naples. Encompassing an area of approximately 49,000 square meters (about 12 acres) with two palaces, housing for Provençal settlers and their families, and facilities for soldiers, workers, royal administrators, and equipment, Lucera’s fortress is paradigmatic of Angevin construction, resettlement, and urban development patterns that connected territory in the kingdom politically, economically, and socially. Second, I consider how the process of construction employed at the fortress relied on the increasingly unified kingdom and the Angevin king Charles I’s firm control over integration. By examining the surviving documents related to the fortress’s construction as well as the physical remains, especially a 600-meter-long portion of the perimeter walls mentioned in the texts as the murus ex parte Florentini (i.e., facing toward the city of Fiorentino), I analyze the costs of construction and the sources of funds, the workers and materials needed and their origins, and the bureaucracy that the crown established for procuring funds, workers, and materials. I argue that Lucera’s fortress and Angevin architecture in general are embodiments of the Angevin state and demonstrate how examining Angevin history by means of its building fabric contributes to studies concerning the processes of medieval building construction, the role of architecture in late medieval political consolidation, and the examination of castle architecture beyond its military value.