Assoro
The castle was a Byzantine
fortification conquered in 939 by the Arab chief Chalil. He
is said to have repaired the fortress. After 1060, but before
1091, the castle fell to the Normans. It was subsequently
granted by Roger II (d.1154) to the bishop of Catania. The fee and presumably therefore the castle was held from Frederick III
(d.1337) by the knight Scalorus Osbert in 1296. He also held the
fees of Gutte and Chinidroni. Presumably Assoro castle was
finally a victim of the 1693 earthquake.
Description
The rubble built castle has a more traditional British plan with a
polygonal inner ward set on a small cliff site with a rectangular
bailey to the south. Most of the inner ward is now gone, but
the curtain wall blocking off the line of easiest access from the south
still partially stands in two straight sections. At the west
end of this stands a boldy projecting solid circular turret only 10' in
diameter. Traces of the rest of the curtain follows the cliff
top. Presumably there would have been a hole in the wall
gateway towards the east side above the outer bailey.
The outer bailey is merely marked by fragments of wall, although there
is a trace of a large rectangular tower at the southwest corner of the
bailey. In the southeast corner stood a rectangular building of
which only the east curtain wall side survives. This had a
rock cut basement which still has 8 timber beam support holes cut into
the rock for the wooden first floor. The room above was lit
by at least one peculiar wide rectangular light to the east.
At the external south end of the room is a slight projecting buttress
with quoined corners. This has less putlog holes than the
adjoining curtain and is presumably a later addition. As
there are no putlog holes in the inner ward it seems clear that these
were built in different phases. There are also underground
passageways and chambers. At some stage the outer ward was
extended to the west and traces of this curtain can still be made out,
as well as its toothing where it was joined into the south curtain of
the inner ward adjacent to the turret.
Why not join me at other Sicilian
castles? Information on this and other tours can be found at Scholarly
Sojourns.
Copyright©2019
Paul Martin Remfry