Friedrich II and the Love of Geometry

The Castel del Monte was built in the northern part of Apulia by the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II of Hohenstaufen in the last decade of his life. It an eight-sided central structure with octagonal towers at each corner unique. The tangents of the octagon forming the inner courtyard intersect at the centers of the octagonal corner towers: they form an eight-pointed star whose tips lie at the centers of the towers. Eight-pointed stars may also be drawn around the corner towers. The close geometric connections between the eith stars thus created provide evidence that the size of the towers was not chosen arbitrarily, but follows a precise geometrical system. The geometric design of Castel del Monte is an example of a configuration with an inner aesthetic. The repetition of the basic eight-pointed star can be continued and, as Max Koecher observed, results in a fractal with infinite iteration possibilities.