The Ducal Palace in Parete (Italy): evolution of a Norman fortification Tower

The Ducal Palace in Parete is a historical monument in the centre of the homonymous district in south Italy. The structure in the current configuration originates from the stratification over centuries of successive intervention. The original urban layout is Roman, and the main roads, Vittorio Emanuele II and Roma, probably overlap the ancient Cardo and Decumano. In the beginning, the human settlement was agricultural, with several farmhouses, among which was the primary structure of the Ducal Palace. During the next centuries, various dominations have succeeded. In the eleventh century, the crisis for dukedoms and historic dynasties allowed the Normans to manage their power throughout southern Italy. In this context, the foundation of the city of Aversa marked the starting point of the Normans’ military ascendancy. With the foundation of the County of Aversa, all the hamlets and villages in the area, including the Parete, fell under the direct control of the Counts of Aversa. Parete was involved in some fortification works whose function was not merely the defence of the village but was part of a broader and more complex defensive system. Thus, a networked defensive system was established, whose mainstays were towers or similar structures throughout the Aversa territory, situated between the Princedome of Capua and the Dukedome of Naples. In Parete, a fortified tower was constructed as one of the mainstays of the network. Between the 12th and 13th centuries, the tower was expanded into a house tower, which constitutes the core of the present shape of the Ducal Palace. The building has a star-shaped structure with four angular and four connecting units, masonries are in grey tuff, and the roof is in chestnut wood. The study focuses on the analysis of such a peculiar transformation from the structural point of view, highlighting on the restoration and consolidation design. So the paper, taking into account that the whole structure born from a single free tower and had to transform into a complex system, shows the manner in which the interventions allowed the recovery and the re-use of the manufact.