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Maniace Castle
A defence of the natural port of Ortigia in 1038 the captain George Byzantine Maniace built a strong, then transformed into a castle by Frederick II between 1232 and 1240. For almost all the fifteenth century it was a prison. At the end of the sixteenth century, the Castle became a nodal point of the boundary walls of Ortigia. The building was accessible only through a drawbridge, which isolava from the mainland, making it virtually unassailable. In 1704 a serious explosion occurred in the powder keg upset the building.

Image In the following years are prepared Reconstruction, which left intact the shares ruined the explosive, while created cladding for the construction of warehouses. During the Napoleonic Castle resources with military functions and was fitted with mouths to cannon. In 1838, during the period of revolutionary movements that were scatenadosi throughout the kingdom, borbonici of Ferdinand there raised a fortification. After the unification of Italy it remained a military structure.

In fact, its function military fortress there are doubts arising both from its position (it is located in the city and not, for example, to the territory) and its structure (there is the beam, adequate space internal manoeuvres of war machines, as well as the towers themselves, ingombrate within the stairs, could not serve defensive purposes).

To date, after a long restoration and a work of demilitarisation, the monument returned to public use. In recent years not only opening to the public, was established performances dell'Ortigia Festival
 
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