Cittadella Fortificata e Castello
The Fortified Lipari Citadel (Civita), located on a volcanic rock overhanging the sea, consists of the Castle, a set of buildings and massive walls enclosing also the neighborhood below. The necropolis and the castra occupy the flat areas. The first occupation of the site dates back to the Neolithic; there are also the remains of the Imperial era. In 836-837, the Aeolian archipelago was assaulted by the owner of al-Fadl ibn Ya'qub, who taketh several fortresses on the northern coast of Sicily. Dates back to 1085, however, the foundation of the St. Bartholomew's Monastery by Roger I of Sicily and Robert the Guiscard. Norman towers and the entrance to the Citadel are the work of the Altavilla (XII century). The current Castle and the walls were built in the sixteenth century by Charles V, after yet another attack led Ottoman Captain Khayr al-Din Barbarossa. No trace remains of appreciable homes, instead there are several churches: St. Catherine (seventeenth century), Our Lady of Sorrows, the Virgin Mary and the St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, in the middle of the hill surrounded by archaeological finds. Some buildings of the Castle are used as seat of the Aeolian Archaeological Museum, which houses much of the material found in the fifties by the archaeologist Luigi Bernabò Brea.
