Area Archeologica Monumentale di Castello a Mare

The area formerly occupied by the fortress of Castellammare is now more than half of the Keystone dock at the port of Palermo. Inside the fortress you can visit two main areas: the so-called Tower Mastra, surrounded by a buffer zone, and a large archaeological site with a collection of buildings rather heterogeneous. Castello a Mare is located in the Archaeological Park of Castellammare, near the Cala, in the district of the Lodge, north of the port of Palermo. It was the most important bulwark of the port of Palermo until the twentieth century. Until 1923 the fort had a wall square bordered on two sides by the sea, which contained within it a huge architectural complex. In ancient times, the castle was composed by a large male of the Arab era, some of Norman parts (such as the Chapel of the Bagnara), ramparts and entrance area of the fifteenth century, a Renaissance palace, a sixteenth-century church (Our Lady of Piedigrotta, built on an ancient  Arabic mosque), two low hexagonal towers and many other facilities and factories in more recent times. Of the old buildings remain part of the main tower, of the cylindrical tower and the entrance building.