National Archaeological Museum of Manfredonia

The National Archaeological Museum of Manfredonia , housed inside the Swabian Castle , houses the most famous and significant archaeological finds of the Capitanata and Gargano area, including the Daunian stelae. The collections are housed in the Swabian-Angevin Castle , a manor built in the 13th century by the will of Manfredi di Svevia , son of Emperor Frederick II , to defend the new town built to accommodate the inhabitants of nearby Siponto, which has become inhospitable due to swamping and wars. In little Angevin the turreted structure assumed an organic physiognomy and a more complex layout with a high quadrangular wall curtain. In the 15th century the Aragonese endowed the castle with a second outer wall, connected at the edges by four circular towers. The one to the west, during the sixteenth century, was incorporated into a pentagonal structure that takes its name from a bas-relief with the scene of the Annunciation visible on the outer walls of the bastion. The Museum , in addition to preserving the archaeological objects, precious testimonies of the ancient Daunian populations, essentially wants to carry out that function of reinvigorating the historical memory, understood not as a mere memory of the past but as a civic duty of critical awareness and therefore, through an intelligent and appropriate educational section, with real aids and services, facilitates the approach to archeology for young people in particular and for all the more sensitive visitors in general.