Walls of Brindisi

Brindisi has had walls for more than two thousand years: the Messapians began them, the Romans continued them, they were extended in the Middle Ages and strengthened first by the Angevins and then by the Aragonese.

Of that system you can still see the two castles, the Sea or Alfonsino Castle and the Land or Swabian Castle, the two gates, Porta Mesagne and Porta Lecce, and four bastions: dell'Inferno, Carlo V, San Giacomo and the Arruinado. A fifth, the San Giorgio bastion, was demolished to make room for the station.

The bastions follow the rules of military architecture from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century: small, low, massive fortresses with merlons, sentry walks and machicolations.