G8 Environment Ministers' Meeting
The Castle of Maniace in Syracuse
Syracuse has been on the list of UNESCO world heritage sites since 2005, thanks to the outstanding beauty and importance of its historical monuments and archaeological remains.
The city proper extends from the promontory known as Ortigia right over to the mainland. The castle of Maniace, where the G8 Environment Ministers are to meet, is located at the tip of the promontory of Ortigia.
Scholars consider the castle, originally built between 1232 and 1240 for Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Swabia who ruled Sicily from 1198 to 1250, to be one of the most important monuments of the Swabian era. Visitors gain access to the main body of the sandstone castle via a stone bridge.
The history of the castle of Maniace is closely bound up with the history of Syracuse itself. It was inside these walls that Frederick II approved the foundation of Naples University, while over the centuries the castle has been both a noble residence and a seat of the Sicilian parliament.
Despite the massive damage that the castle sustained in two violent earthquakes that rocked the city of Syracuse in 1542 and in 1693, not to mention when the powder store blew up and wrecked the whole of the northwest corner in 1704, its typical 13th century structure based on a square keep with four cylindrical corner towers is virtually intact.
The building has undergone a number of alterations down the centuries: it was surrounded by a ring of ramparts in 1500, then in the following centuries it was used both as a barracks and as a prison. The Army continued to use it as a barracks following the unity of Italy in the 19th century, but it has now been reopened to visitors after massive restoration and consolidation work involving the whole of the fortified complex. Today the castle hosts exhibitions and cultural events in the atmospheric environment of its central court.
*Sources: www.g8ambiente.it and websites of the Sicilian Regional Authority and Syracuse Municipal Authority
