Inaugurated in 1492, the Aragonese Castle, a grandiose work of the late 15th century, stands on the area occupied in Byzantine times by a fortress placed to defend the medieval settlement.
As we see it today, the castle retains four towers with evocative names: San Cristoforo, San Lorenzo, dell’Annunziata and della Bandiera, which guaranteed high military performance thanks to four orders of overlapping fires.
Inside is the beautiful chapel of St. Leonard, probably designed by Francesco Di Giorgio Martini in the 16th century in which, according to tradition, the marriage between the Princess of Taranto Maria D’Enghien and Ladislaus King of Durazzo and first king of Naples was celebrated.
The dungeons of the fortress have hosted famous people including Alexandre Dumas.
The Count of Monte Cristo, written by his son a few years later, was an authentic dedication by the writer in memory of his father’s terrible imprisonment inside Taranto’s Aragonese Castle between 1799 and 1800.
Today the facility is operated by the Italian Navy and although open to the public, it is a military base in its own right.
