The Normans built the castle in the late 11th century at a strategic gateway between Campania and Apulia. The article names no architect and no single style, and the infobox gives limestone and brick. It has ten towers, seven rectangular and three pentagonal, and four entrances. Hohenstaufen changes followed after 1194, and Charles II of Anjou carried out works from 1278 to 1281. The Doria family transformed it between the 16th and 18th centuries into a baronial palace.
Church councils met in Melfi between 1059 and 1137, including the 1059 Concordat with Robert Guiscard. Frederick II had the Constitutions of Melfi promulgated there in 1231. The castle suffered little in the earthquakes of 1851 and 1930.
The Italian State owns it, and it houses the National Archaeological Museum of Melfi, opened in 1976.
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