Aragonese Castle of Taranto

The first nucleus of the castle dates back to 780, when the Byzantines started the construction of the "Rocca" to protect it from attacks by the Saracens and the Republic of Venice. This first fortification consisted of tall and narrow towers, from which they fought with spears, arrows, stones and boiling oil. In 1481 a first navigable canal was built, narrower than the present one and with irregular banks, to allow the passage of small boats and improve the defensibility of the castle. In 1486, Ferdinand I of Naples commissioned the architect and military engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini to enlarge the castle and to give it the current structure, in order to replace the medieval type of towers conceived for the plumbing defense. In fact, the use of cannons following the discovery of gunpowder required wide and low towers, of circular shape to cushion the impact of cannonballs, equipped with ramps or slides that allowed the movement

Beautiful fortress in Taranto