Il Castello Volante
A creative workshop for the production of images, sounds and visions
With the Flying Castle, images, sounds, and flavors take shape in the ancient manor of Corigliano d'Otranto, in Puglia, in the heart of the Grecia Salentina region.
A workshop of visual and performing arts for the rediscovery and protection of intangible heritage, a space for research and artistic practice that fosters creative exchanges and nourishes free-flowing thoughts.
The Flying Castle is a multidisciplinary laboratory where history, architecture, cinema, music, photography, writing, gastronomy, and craftsmanship meet and interact.
Winner of the Puglia Region’s call for proposals to promote cultural attractions through support for businesses in the live entertainment industry, “The Flying Castle” is a project developed by three cultural enterprises (Multiservice Eco, Coolclub, and Big Sur), who, together with the Municipality of Corigliano d’Otranto, have reimagined the ancient Castello De’ Monti as a system of creative workshops, a large-scale visual and performing arts center open to the local area and the community for the rediscovery and protection of intangible heritage, artistic practice, and the nourishment of thoughts that fly.
The Castle and its surroundings thus become places to inhabit, not empty spaces or “locations” simply to be used, but containers of stories to be discovered and revealed, architectural bodies with which to establish a sentimental connection and to which to return a mark of one’s passage.
Since 2017, the Castello Volante has hosted major film festivals and exhibitions featuring leading figures in Italian and international contemporary photography, such as Cecilia Mangini, Arturo Zavattini, William Klein, Letizia Battaglia, Franco Pinna, and Pino Guidolotti, along with young photographers and emerging artists. Over the years, it has established itself as an exhibition center and experimental space that fosters encounters and creative exchanges.
Each year, the program is enriched with events born from collaborations with other local organizations or international projects, as well as “resident” festivals of music, film, visual arts, and political communication produced by the cultural enterprises that founded the Castello Volante and have now found a home within the ancient manor.