Description of the attraction
The Byzantine castle of Castello Sant Anicheto, also known as San Nicheto, was built in the 11th century on a hill in the small town of Motta San Giovanni in the province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region of Calabria. The town itself lies 130 km southwest of the regional capital, Catanzaro, and 13 km southeast of its largest city, Reggio di Calabria.
Castello Sant Anicheto is one of the most outstanding examples of late medieval Byzantine-Norman architecture in Calabria and one of the best-preserved Byzantine forts in the world. Its name comes from the name of Saint Nicetas, a Byzantine admiral who lived in the 7-8th centuries. The castle was built as a refuge and a kind of guard tower at a time when the warlike Saracens were constantly ravaging the shores of Calabria and Sicily. After the Norman conquest of southern Italy, the structure was expanded and several rectangular towers were added to it. In the 13th century, the castle became the main center of the flourishing feudal estate of San Anicheto, which included the villages of Motta San Giovanni and Montebello. And two centuries later, during the conflict with Reggio di Calabria, it was destroyed by order of Alfonso Calabria.
The structure that has survived to us has an irregular shape, which resembles a ship with the bow facing the mountains, and the stern, looking at the sea. Two square towers have survived near the entrance. At the foot of a short but steep path that leads to the plain below, there is a small church, the dome of which is painted with frescoes depicting Christ Pantokrator, a typical piece of Byzantine art. The height of the castle walls varies from 3 to 3.5 meters, and the thickness reaches one meter.
Another attraction of Motta San Giovanni is the Capo delle Armi lighthouse. It stands on the cape of the same name and is a strategically important object for ships entering the Strait of Messina from the south. The lighthouse was built in 1867 and modernized a hundred years later. It consists of a white signal tower atop an octagonal brick building two stories high.
