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The Emperor's Castle, also known as Fortress of S.Barbara or Castello Svevo, is considered the most important Prato's testimony of 11-13th centuries architecture. It was the headquarters of the Imperial party in the Florentine countryside, seat of the Imperial Viceroy of Tuscany. The main feature of the castle is its aspect: a marvelous example of Federician Castle like the other masterpieces that we can find in the South of Italy, as Castel del Monte or Lagopesole, the only in this part of the Italian peninsula. The castle's construction begun in 1237 and ended in 1248 by order of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Swabia, in the circle of his project to set under military control the principal ways of communications that brought to Germany, in detail the road that, coming down from the Montepiano Pass (the lowest in the Apennines) crossed the Bisenzio Valley in the heart of Tuscany. This strategical location made the castle an important key in the plan for the new organization of the Italian Kingdom pursued by Frederick Hohenstaufen in the years immediately after his victory at Cortenuova (27 November 1237). This system of fortification consisting in other castles, walled villages (like the near Calenzano) and strongholds all in visual contact (with fire or smoke signals) with each other. At the end of Frederick's Imperial dream the chain was consolidated by Florence, at defense of its important trade routes. Enjoy another scrap of the Italian History.