The Venosina Door

Among the six doors one time opened in the city walls of Melfi, the Venosina Door – so called because from it an arterial road, leading through the Appia road to Venosa, departed – it is the street from which Fredrick II entered the city. Fredrick’s signature Of Norman origin, it was restored in the XIII century by Fredrick II, who placed upon it the following inscription:   “L’antichità mi ha distrutta, Federico mi ha riparata Melfi, nobile città della Puglia circonvallata da mura di pietra, celebre per salubrità dell’aria, per affluenza di popolazioni per fertilità dei suoi campi, ha un castello costruito su una rupe ripidissima opera mirabile dei Normanni“. This headstone celebrating the ancient glory and greatness of the city was later replaced by Giovanni Caracciolo with another one, still now visible. In gothic style, the Venosina Door has a pointed vault entrance with a fluted bullnose archivolt, supported by overturned trunk-pyramidal capitals, and it is supported by two cylindrical bastions of 1400 in reinforcement of the defensive ability. The door is flanked by two bas-reliefs of which one portrays the basilisk, city emblem.