Egg Castle, Italy

The Egg Castle or Castel dell'Ovo is a castle located on a small island, the Megarides, where colonists from Cumae founded the original nucleus of the city in the 6th century BC but most of the castle was constructed by Frederick II and later expanded by the Angevins. In the 1st century AD the Roman patrician Lucius Licinius Lucullus built on the site of the current castle a villa which was fortified in the early 5th century by Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III (425-455). After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire it became also the home in exile for the last Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus.



The Roman structure and later additions were demolished by the local residents in the 9th century to prevent its use by Saracen raiders. The first castle on the site was built in 12th century by the Normans but as already mentioned most of the current Egg Castle was built by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250, king 1211/12–1250, emperor since 1220) and later by the Angevins. When Charles I of Anjou (1226 – 1285) built a new castle the importance of the Egg Castle began to decline and it became the seat of the Royal Chamber and of the State Treasury.

In the 19th century around the southern wall of the castle emerged a small fishing village which is still visible today but it is better known for its marina and several fine restaurants. The Egg Castle (the name has origin in the medieval legend which says that poet Virgil built it on a magical egg submerged on the floor of the ocean and if the egg breaks Naples will collapse) is today open to the public.