The Aragonese Castle of Otranto

We invite you to discover the Aragonese Castle of Otranto, a symbolic place that tells an age-old story, often intertwined with the ancient confrontations between the Western Christian world and the Eastern Muslim world that ultimately led to Turkish rule in 1480. Otranto was set free in 1481 by the Aragonese troops and the castle was rebuilt on the will of Alfonso d’Aragon, Duke of Calabria. At the end of the century, when the city was given as a pledge to Venetians, its structure was further strengthened with the addition of an artillery room and mortars. The castle as it looks today, though, is reminiscent of the Spanish royal government that ruled over Otranto for a long period. Today, only a donjon and a portion of the ancient bulwarks remain from the Aragonese period.

The castle remains a landmark for the City of Otranto: once a defensive stronghold, today a container for culture and knowledge thanks to events and exhibitions, some of an international level. Almost the entire complex can be visited for the admiration of architectural details such as the mighty bastion, called the Punta di Diamante, and the Triangular-Shaped Hall, whose design is based on state-of-the-art defensive techniques of the time, one of the leading examples of ancient military architecture.