Italy · 15th century
The Castello Aragonese di Baia is a Renaissance fortress of the late 15th century in the Baia district of the municipality of Bacoli in the Italian region of Campania. The fortress was built at a height of 51 metres on a cape in the Phlegraean Fields, protected to the east by a tuff cliff above the Gulf of Pozzuoli and to the west by a deep depression. The latter is the remnant of a crater called "Fondi di Baia", which formed after the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff eruption. With its walls, moats and drawbridges the complex was practically impregnable. Its position, from which it dominated the whole Gulf of Pozzuoli as far as Procida, Ischia and Cumae, permitted very far-reaching control of the area, by which the approach of enemy fleets could be prevented, fleets that might have landed troops which could have marched on Naples in a surprise action.
Machine-translated from “Castello di Baia” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Castello Aragonese ranks #5,177 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #376 of the 560 mapped in Italy. Founded 1495, it is older than 44% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 554 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,340 times in the last 60 days, more than 58% of the atlas. 24 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Naples, 14 km away. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.
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