Visits
Art and Culture
Aragonese Castle
The Castel Sant'Angelo in Taranto, better known as the Aragonese castle, can boast a long history, as recent excavations testify. The previous Greek, Byzantine and Norman-Swabian-Angevin structures are still legible and visible during the guided tour. The new castle from the Aragonese era was rebuilt in the years between 1487 and 1492, according to the new criteria imposed by the improvement of the artillery. It seems that the reconstruction project, wanted by the King of Naples Ferdinand of Aragon, was carried out with the direct or, more likely, indirect intervention of the great Sienese architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini. The cylindrical towers and internal walkways are characteristic. The Renaissance chapel of S. Leonardo inside is interesting.
Archaeological Museum
The National Archaeological Museum of Taranto is among the most important in Italy; it was established in 1887 as a result of the urbanization of the area east of the Taranto Navigable Canal with the construction of the Borgo Umbertino. The building was enlarged and rearranged in various phases, starting from 1903, the era of the reconstruction of the facades based on a project by Guglielmo Calderini, while the northern wing was designed by Carlo Ceschi and built between 1935 and 1941. Restructuring work began in 1998 which led to the completion of the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto - MArTa with the setting up of the second floor of the museum.