Castrovillari

Castrovillari stands below the mountains of the Pollino in northern Calabria, commanding routes between the highlands and the plain of the Crati. Its old town grew around an earlier fortress, churches and gates. In the fifteenth century the Aragonese rulers strengthened their hold on the town with a new castle at the opposite end of the settlement, near the old gate known as Porta della Catena. Its four towers gave the new fortification a strong outline.

Completed around 1490, the castle carried an inscription celebrating King Ferdinand's authority. It formed part of a wider programme of fortification after unrest and baronial conspiracies in the Kingdom of Naples. The imposing walls guarded a strategic place, while also reminding Castrovillari's inhabitants of the king's power over their town.