Lipari Castle
Description
The castle site in Lipari island has been populated for thousand years, but the current fortifications data mainly from the 16th century. The castle is surrounded by a long wall, built by the Spanish under Charles V domination around the mid-16th century. The enter door leads to a gallery at exit, where an iron shutter was closed, and thanks to the existent trapdoors, boiling oils were poured. The first building to see is the Church of Santa Caterina, already dismissed, built between 16th and 18th centuries, with the cross nave. The castle has other religious structures; between them the Chiesa dell’Addolorata dating back to the 16th century, with a richly decorated Baroque façade; further there is the Chiesa dell’Immacolata built in 1747. In front of the Church of Santa Caterina two wide excavation ditches show the rests of huts dating back the Bronze Age and being a part of a Greek-Roman urban plant. Next to the excavations there is Concordato staircase, built in the 10th century to connect Saint Bartholomew’s Cathedral to the urban center.