Patron saint festival In 191 days
Our Lady of the Annunciation and the caves of Castro
📅 Every year, from 24 to 26 April
Castro celebrates Our Lady of the Annunciation from 24 to 26 April, with a fireworks display and the fish-and-sarsa festival.
According to the Aeneid it was here that Aeneas first set foot in Italy, where the temple of Minerva stood: the Roman town was called Castrum Minervae. In 682 Pope Leo II made it one of the first bishop's seats of the Salento, and in 1103 it became a county.
The pirate raids of 1537 and 1573 finished it: the counts left, the bishop left, and those who remained moved to the villages inland. In 1818 the diocese too was suppressed, and Castro became a hamlet of Diso. It became a comune again only in 1975, when the harbour and tourism had put it back on its feet. The town is still in two pieces: upper Castro, on the headland, and Castro Marina, down at the port.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Castro 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Castro
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Castro, but an easy day trip away.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta 📍 Mira · 9.2 km The sanctuary of the Madonna Mora at Borbiago di Mira, with Andrea Briosco's statue and Diziani's great canvas. Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena 📍 Mira · 10 km The parish church of Oriago, with a canvas attributed to Titian's brother and a bell tower with octagonal belfry. Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo in Bosco 📍 Mira · 10 km The church of Bosco Grande in Mira, rebuilt in the twentieth century beside its sixteenth-century bell tower. Villa Foscari 📍 Venice · 13 km Palladio's Malcontenta on the Brenta: a temple of brick disguised as stone, reached by boat. Duomo di San Giovanni Battista 📍 Mira · 12 km The late-Romanesque church of Gambarare, with a Callido organ and almost five centuries of priests chosen locally. ponte della Libertà 📍 Venice · 17 km The four-kilometre bridge with which Venice, in 1846, stopped being an island: the lagoon crossing.