The castle of Brucoli, formerly the castle of the Bruca, stands in the hamlet of Augusta that bears the same name, at the mouth of the canal-harbour. It was the wish of Queen Juana Enríquez, who had received the area as a gift from her husband, King John II of Aragon. In 1467 the queen granted its construction to Giovanni Cabastida, a chamberlain who came from Barcelona and held it in concession for three generations.
What to see
The fortress was built above all as a safeguard against Turkish expansion along the coasts of the Mediterranean; in the following century the raids of the Turks were joined by those of the Barbary corsairs, from the northern coasts of Africa.
The position at the harbour mouth was not only for defence: from there maritime trade was controlled and the grain reserves that arrived at the canal-harbour were kept, and the small village that had grown up at the foot of the castle was protected.
Visiting
Any access to the castle should be checked on the spot; from outside you take in its position, at the mouth of the fishing village's canal-harbour.
Our editors' tip
In the narrow strip between the fortress and the sea stands the Brucoli lighthouse, also called the lighthouse of the Antico Castello Regina Giovanna: a white tower with a red band, activated in 1911. The building beside it, which had been abandoned, was granted in 2017 by the state to a private company, which renovated it as a tourist facility.
