Castello Eurialo

The Euryalus Fortress located in the frazione of Belvedere, was the key point in the fortifications of the ancient Greek city of Syracuse, Magna Graecia. It is located on the highest point of the hill of Epipolae (about 120 metres above sea level), around 7 km northwest of Syracuse.

During the Athenian invasion of Sicily (415-413 BC), the fortress did not yet exist, but the strategic importance of the area was clear; the Athenians initially captured the hill, but their failure to retain it prevented them from effectively besieging the city. The name Euryalus is mentioned by Thucydides in the course of the first Athenian attack on the city. Later in his account, after the reconquest of Epipolae from the Athenians by the Syracusans, a Syracusan garrison on the site is mentioned.

In light of this experience, the fortress was first established by Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse. Construction took place between 402 and 397 BC, with the intention that the fortress would protect the city from siege and attack by the Carthaginians. Various renovations were subsequently undertaken in response to developments in siege weaponry, under Agathocles and Hiero II.

After the Roman conquest of the city in 212 BC by Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the fortress continued to be modified until the Byzantine period when parts of it were torn apart in order to repair the rest in light of Muslim invasion.

In 1939, King Victor Emmanuel III visited the monument in an official capacity. In 1941, during the Second World War, the artefacts in the Syracuse archaeological museum were carried by mule to the fortress and hidden in its tunnels, so that they would be safe from aerial bombardment.

On 30 September 2016, an antiquarium was opened on the site, after a long closure resulting from the Santa Lucia earthquake of 1990. This building contains some of the discoveries from the site, including a sword, a helmet, and the missiles from a stone-throwing catapult.

The entrance to the fortress is protected by three ditches and one lateral ditch. The first and smallest ditch is 6 metres long and 4 metres deep (see A on the map below). The second is 86 metres away from the first and is around 50 metres long (B). It defends a forward bastion, behind which is a third ditch which is 17 metres long and 9 metres deep (D) which links the defensive system with the tunnels.

Text adapted from “Euryalus fortress” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Castello Eurialo ranks #2,546 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #200 of the 487 mapped in Italy. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,218 times in the last 60 days, more than 69% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 1,131 visitors in 2022. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. It is one of the 23 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Sicily. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗