The Castle of Mesagne or Castrum is mentioned in a Frederician document in 1220 and this document is, without doubt, a reliable source. Less reliable, however, is the authenticity of another even older document dating from 1062, the Chronicon breve Northmannicum, in which the castle of Mesagne is also mentioned.

Therefore, the first reliable source of information regarding the castle dates from 1220. In the same year, Frederick II confirmed in a document that Mesagne belonged to the Teutonic Knights of Saint Mary of Jerusalem. In successive years, Mesagne passed under the rule of various feudal lords, until it was taken over by Maria d’Enghein in 1419 and then her son, Giannantonio Del Balzo Orsini. It is likely that the defensive walls with their twenty-two turrets plus the castle were built by Giannantonio Orsini Del Balzo around the 1430s. This information comes to us via a manuscript by the historian Cataldo Antonio Mannarino, who wrote in 1596, during the years in which Mesagne was under the control of the Albricci family.

Mannarino also provided a detailed drawing of the historical centre, with its characteristic heart shape, the defensive system of the city walls, the twenty-two turrets, the Porta Grande (Great Gate), the Porta Piccola (Little Gate) and the Castle.

There is no doubt that the Torrione (the fortified tower), indicated in the drawing by Mannarino, is the tower that we can still see today. In 1596, on the top of the tower there was another smaller turret, named the Polledro, illustrated in the painting of Saint Oronzo, who protects Mesagne, housed in the Chiesa Matrice. The earthquake of 1743 damaged various buildings, amongst which was the Polledro, which was then demolished in 1750 by the Marquis Barretta because it was unstable.

According to the historian Diego Ferdinando, who wrote in 1630, the western part of the fortified tower, also recorded by Mannarino, was demolished and rebuilt by Prince Albricci at the end of 1500. Mesagne then passed in 1646 from the Albricci to the De Angelis family who were the owners until 1728, the year in which the estate was confiscated to satisfy the estate’s various creditors. In February 1731 the Sacro Regio Consiglio (the most powerful and authoritative court of the Neapolitan Reign) gave Pietro Vinaccia the role of carrying out an evaluation of the assets of Prince Carmine de Angelis. Leaving Naples in the month of March, Vinaccia stayed in Mesagne for almost eight months, during the course of which he evaluated both the buildings and grounds of the estate. As part of his evaluation, he took into consideration all of the elements that could contribute to the assets and income of the estate, such as the commercial traffic, the population, the land and the places of worship. Vinaccia’s document is extremely important because it provides us with a precise description of the economy of the fiefdom of Mesagne, based in the main, on the cultivation of olive trees and the commerce of olive oil together with the cultivation of wheat.

But returning to the castle, it is thanks to Vinaccia’s accurate description that we can move through all of the existing rooms and settings of the Castle again and understand what functions they had in 1731. The great tanks for olive oil are mentioned, in part situated under the current auditorium, and the kitchen with its great oven, situated on the ground floor facing the dry moat. He describes the inside of the fortified tower, with the small rooms used as cells, the neviera (cool room), the stables and the carriage house. His description of the first floor of the Palazzo Baronale is also very precise and we learn that some rooms in the tower were used for cooking, that many rooms had planked ceilings with painted square tiles and brick floors. The exterior gallery that faces west was also described and the small room used as a chapel that is still visible today.

Following the evaluation of the estate carried out by Vinaccia, the Castle and all the property passed to the Marquis Giuseppe Barretta, until it was purchased in 1791 by the Marquis Vincenzo Imperiali. The Castle remained the property of the Imperiali family until 1908 when it was sold to the Princess Iran d’Abro Pagratide, the widow of the Marquis Giuseppe Granafei. Since 1973 it has been the property of the Municipality of Mesagne. After the important restoration work started at the end of the last century, the Castle today is the headquarters of the MATER; Museo del Territorio (the regional museum) “Ugo Granafei” and the venue for various cultural events.