He created a bureaucracy of paid officials, who among other things imposed a tax system on the local feudal rulers, who resented it but could not resist.

Under the Angevin crown, Charles II ordered the castle to be renovated and enlarged, making it the official residence of his wife Mary of Hungary.

During the war between Francis I of France and Charles V of Spain for the Kingdom of Naples, the French army headed by Odet de Foix besieged Melfi in March 1528, slaying about 3.000 people, without sparing women or children.

During the Parthenopean Republic, proclaimed in 1799, Melfi was controlled by the republicans until the arrival of the sanfedisti headed by the cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo on May 29 of the same year.

After the Italian unification, Melfi was involved in a bloody civil war labeled as brigandage and was occupied by the peasant army of Carmine Crocco on April 15, 1861; in order to restore the Bourbon government of Francis II in the Vulture area.

During the Fascist regime, it was land of exile for antifascists such as Manlio Rossi-Doria, Franco Venturi, Eugenio Colorni and his wife Ursula Hirschmann.

The city enjoyed a revival of sorts from the end of the 20th century, and recently has gained additional prosperity when the Italian auto firm FIAT built a factory here.

The Duomo (Cathedral), built in the 11th century for want of Robert Guiscard, it was also rehandled in the baroque style after the earthquakes, with exception of the original Norman bell tower.

There are collections of the archaic era (7th-6th century BC) with male and female funerary objects including amber pendants and the so-called Lavello cup.

The phenomenon of rock churches in Southern Italy dates back to the monastic migration from Asia Minor and Balkans after the iconoclastic battles of the early 8th century.

Melfi was mainly an agricultural center until the beginning of the nineties, since then the industrial sector received a boost in the frazione of San Nicola, with the building of an automobile factory owned by Fiat.

Another renowned product is the "marroncino", a type of chestnut used for many sweet and salty recipes and is precious for the industries specialized in the preparation of the marron glacé.