Otranto's castle

The Castle of Otranto is the fortress of the homonymous city located in Apulia, in the province of Lecce. The castle, which gave its name to the first gothic novel in history, is in close relation with the walls of the town.
Important bridgehead to the East, the city of Otranto has been provided since ancient times with defensive systems and fortifications, updated throughout the centuries by rulers of the time.
The siege suffered by the city in 1067 severely damaged the fortress that was repaired and upgraded a few years later at the behest of Roberto il Guiscardo. Of the reconstruction promoted in 1228 by Frederick II of Swabia, remain traces of the tower of the median cylindrical body, incorporated in the bastion, and the curtain wall to the north-east.
After the Sack of Otranto in 1480, the year when all of Southern Italy was the object of the turkish attacks, the castle had to be rebuilt, this time by Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Calabria. At the end of the century, when the city was pledged to the Venetians, the structure was furtherly enhanced with the addition of artillery and mortars. Of the Aragonese phase remains only a tower and part of the walls.
The current appearance of the fort is in fact due to the Spanish viceroys, who turned it into a veritable masterpiece of military architecture: works of extraordinary defense were implemented in 1535 by Don Pedro de Toledo, of which remains the emblem on the entrance portal and on the outer curtain.
The castle of Otranto inspired the first Gothic novel in history, The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole (1764).