Description
Castello Ursino is the fortress that Frederick II of Swabia had built in Catania from 1239: a square block of dark lava stone with four great round towers at the corners, in the historic center. Inside is the city's Civic Museum.
Each side measures about 50 meters, the corner towers reach 30 meters in height, and the walls are two and a half meters thick. The castle once looked out over the sea; today it is surrounded by houses, in the middle of a square.
Above the entrance, on the north side, a niche holds the Swabian eagle clutching a hare, a symbol of Frederick II's power, sometimes mistaken for a lamb. On the east side there is a Renaissance window adorned with a five-pointed star in lava stone.
Inside, around the courtyard with an outdoor staircase in Gothic style, open the great halls divided into three bays, covered by ribbed cross vaults springing from half-columns with leaf capitals: the effect is that of a Gothic church.
The halls house the Civic Museum, opened in 1934. The heart of its holdings are the collections of the Prince of Biscari and of the Benedictine monks: Greek and Roman finds, sculptures, paintings, and works of art from many periods.
Don't overlook the prisoners' graffiti. From the 16th to the 19th century the castle was also a jail, and the inmates carved coats of arms, faces, crosses, three-masted galleons, and phrases in Sicilian on the walls, such as "Vinni carceratu", I was put in prison.
For more than a century the castle was the royal palace of the Aragonese kings of Sicily. Here, in 1295, the Sicilian Parliament elected Frederick III king, and here, in 1347, the peace that ended the Wars of the Vespers was signed.
On the night of January 23, 1379, Queen Maria was abducted from the castle by a nobleman, Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada, to prevent her marriage to Gian Galeazzo Visconti. In 1434 King Alfonso signed the founding charter of the University of Catania here.
In 1669 the great eruption of Etna reached the castle. The lava left its walls intact, but it filled the moat, covered the bastions, and pushed the coastline hundreds of meters farther out, raising the ground around it by some ten meters.
Don't miss
• The Swabian eagle over the entrance.
• The Gothic halls with cross vaults.
• The Civic Museum.
• The prisoners' graffiti.
Did you know?
• According to one theory, the name "Ursino" comes from Castrum Sinus, the "castle on the gulf".
• The oldest inscription left by prisoners on the walls is dated 1526.
Each side measures about 50 meters, the corner towers reach 30 meters in height, and the walls are two and a half meters thick. The castle once looked out over the sea; today it is surrounded by houses, in the middle of a square.
Above the entrance, on the north side, a niche holds the Swabian eagle clutching a hare, a symbol of Frederick II's power, sometimes mistaken for a lamb. On the east side there is a Renaissance window adorned with a five-pointed star in lava stone.
Inside, around the courtyard with an outdoor staircase in Gothic style, open the great halls divided into three bays, covered by ribbed cross vaults springing from half-columns with leaf capitals: the effect is that of a Gothic church.
The halls house the Civic Museum, opened in 1934. The heart of its holdings are the collections of the Prince of Biscari and of the Benedictine monks: Greek and Roman finds, sculptures, paintings, and works of art from many periods.
Don't overlook the prisoners' graffiti. From the 16th to the 19th century the castle was also a jail, and the inmates carved coats of arms, faces, crosses, three-masted galleons, and phrases in Sicilian on the walls, such as "Vinni carceratu", I was put in prison.
For more than a century the castle was the royal palace of the Aragonese kings of Sicily. Here, in 1295, the Sicilian Parliament elected Frederick III king, and here, in 1347, the peace that ended the Wars of the Vespers was signed.
On the night of January 23, 1379, Queen Maria was abducted from the castle by a nobleman, Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada, to prevent her marriage to Gian Galeazzo Visconti. In 1434 King Alfonso signed the founding charter of the University of Catania here.
In 1669 the great eruption of Etna reached the castle. The lava left its walls intact, but it filled the moat, covered the bastions, and pushed the coastline hundreds of meters farther out, raising the ground around it by some ten meters.
Don't miss
• The Swabian eagle over the entrance.
• The Gothic halls with cross vaults.
• The Civic Museum.
• The prisoners' graffiti.
Did you know?
• According to one theory, the name "Ursino" comes from Castrum Sinus, the "castle on the gulf".
• The oldest inscription left by prisoners on the walls is dated 1526.