Nestled in a position of enormous spectacle, surrounded by the blue sea and sky on a rocky islet that seems to tie the umbilical cord of land to the coast, the fort of Le Castella is certainly one of the most beautiful castles not only in the South of 'Italy, but also the entire Peninsula.
Its nucleus was probably the primitive age of Anjou, which would be attributable to the massive cylindrical tower that towers over the rest of the fortress, grown up time for subsequent aggregations constructivist viceroy. The original castle facility would therefore be referred to the second half of the thirteenth century. Its foundation was part of, presumably, in the strengthening of the policy implemented by the Angevins coast at the time the southern kingdom, and was used mainly to protect the Gulf of Capo Rizzuto. In fact, after the battle of Benevento (which in 1266 had marked the final defeat of Manfred and the end of the Swabian domination), a chain of forts, new or rebuilt, was imposed in the South, and over the inner territory had also ended up edging the coastal arc of Puglia and Calabria, to support the expansion of Anjou to the Balkans (which in 1272 lead to the founding of the Kingdom of Albania). The revolt of the Sicilian Vespers of 1282 had convinced Charles of Anjou and the erection of forts to strengthen and restructure the old castles, in anticipation of the bloody and violent conflict with the Aragonese.
The fortress of Le Castella then passed aragonese in hand in the decline of the fifteenth century. In 1496 he was assigned by Frederick of Aragon to Andrea Carafa, who restored it between 1510 and 1526. For nearly forty years, the defenses of Le Castella formed an impregnable fortress to guard the coast of Calabria. In 1536, however, the castle suffered the assault and looting by the Algerian pirate Khai-ad-Din, nicknamed the "Barbarossa." In fact, John was captured Galeni Denis Island. Strange the story: to be a prisoner of the Muslims went to the commander of the Ottoman fleet, and powerful, with the name of turkish Uccilaì, even became governor of Algiers, Tripoli and Tunis. The bars for the Castella, however, had not concluded, even in the middle of the sixteenth century, the fortress was attacked and robbed it again, by the pirate Dragut turkish. On the other hand, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the coastal southern Italy was equipped with an uninterrupted series of watchtowers and castles, maritime, just to address the Muslim invasions, and the fortress of Le Castella could not play it, of course, such a role, if only for its location.
The fear of the Turks was always present, and the tragic massacre perpetrated by Achmet Pasha, known as the "Toothless," in Otranto in 1480, had done nothing but feed the fear aroused by the sons of Allah. In truth, it is not on the opposite side were all roses and flowers similar to the coastal towers that were built between Morocco and Albania as well as tell of Muslim populations were terrorized by raids of Western navies. Decline in the threat of scimitars and half-moon, the fort of Le Castella gradually lost the strategic and military importance. Over time it has converted a little 'out its functions, and is in some sense "recycled", using his undeniable charm to attract no more than turchesche crews, but huge crowds do.
Le Castella Castle