Castello di Terra

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Back as the inner courtyard of the police headquarters

The Castello di Terra in the city of Trapani in Sicily is a former medieval fortress in the city center, on the planum of which today the buildings of the Polizia Di Stato - Questura Di Trapani are located. Less than half of the original complex is still visible today. The castello was one of a number of defensive structures, especially other towers. Castello di Terra is one of the five towers in the city's coat of arms; the others are the neighboring Torre di Ligny as well as the Torre Colombaia , the Torre Nubia and the demolished Torre Pali.

history

Today little is known about the origins of the complex. The castle that still exists today was built by Jacob the Righteous in the 12th century on the remains of a Carthaginian complex, which Diodoro Siculo reported on. Giuseppe Maria di Ferro (1774–1836) gives the year 1318. There the builder is called Friedrich II. (HRR) . Thus, the foundation walls must have existed since the Punic colonization . A canal ran east of the castle that separated the complex from the rest of the city and made the peninsula an island that was easier to defend.

The building complex was rebuilt and added several times, most recently in the 19th century when it served as a barracks. Since then, at the latest, the building has been available for executive tasks. In the 1970s, the southern part of the facility was demolished to make room for the new administration building. Isolated protests against this project, such as the petition by the historian Vincenzo Adragna (1928–1999) from neighboring Erice , came to nothing. Archaeological excavations took place in 1992 and 1994, which helped to bring the past of this era back into the public consciousness. Since then, the administration has endeavored to develop the castle for tourism.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Giuseppe Maria di Ferro: Guida per gli stranieri in Trapani: con un saggio storico Mannone, 1825
  2. ↑ a b Il Castello di terra di Trapani - “Un tesoro sottratto” , May 23, 2011

Coordinates: 38 ° 1 ′ 9 ″  N , 12 ° 30 ′ 52 ″  E