The fortified citadel of Milazzo, commonly known as "Castle", stands on the sites of the primitive Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Arab settlements. Everyday life and activities on the Castle destroyed the most ancient traces of old civilizations and did not allow the detailed reconstruction of the phases of the site before the Norman Conquest.
Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries under the Normans, the Castle was a military defense but it was also the central point for the territorial organization of a vast area and its keep dates back to this period.
Under Frederick II of Swabia (XIII century), thanks to the work of the architect Riccardo da Lentini, the fortification around the keep was enlarged.
On the fourteenth century the Aragonese changed the Castle and under Alfonso the Magnanimous (XV century) there were further alterations, which led, at the end of the same century, thanks to Ferdinand the Catholic, to the creation of mighty walls (Aragonese Walls) that incorporated the Frederick structure.
The construction of the Spanish city walls began in 1525, during the reign of Charles V and under Viceroy Ettore Pignatelli and these walls definitively enclosed the old medieval town. In the area between the Aragonese walls and the Spanish walls arose military, civil and religious buildings. Inside the ramparts (to the south the Bastion of St. Mary, built between the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; to the north the Bastion of the Islands, built in the sixteenth century) warehouses and stables were built while numerous cisterns, distributed in several areas, were used for the supply of water to both civilians and the military.
Meanwhile, perhaps already from the Aragonese era, an unstoppable exodus had begun outside the walls, in the direction of the village and the lower part of the city. The construction of the Ancient Cathedral inside the Spanish walls dates back to 1608 and it was an attempt to stop the movement of the population outwards. The former Monastery of the Benedictines and SS. Salvatore, whose construction began in 1616, is located near other buildings whose use was unknown.
In 1778, according to the chronicles of the time, a fire, probably of malicious origin, destroyed the Town Hall opposite the Ancient Cathedral. Following this episode, the civilian inhabitants definitively abandoned the citadel.
In 1718 the Spaniards lost much of their power but, in an attempt to reconquer Sicily, they besieged Milazzo for 219 days. They caused a large number of victims but they didn’t obtain the desired result. In 1734 the Bourbon domination started and, apart from the brief British parenthesis between 1806 and 1815, it would have last until 1860 when Milazzo was the scene of the battle between Garibaldi and the Bourbons; the clash ended with the removal of the Bourbon garrison installed inside the citadel.
In 1880 the Castle, having now lost its strategic and military importance, was transformed into a prison, maintaining such function until 1959.
Castello di Milazzo Via Salita Castello, Milazzo (ME)
From MAY 1st to SEPTEMBER 30th: from Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 13:30 and from 16:30 to 20:30. Monday closed. From OCTOBER 1st to APRIL 30th: from Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 18:30. Monday closed
