A few minutes walk from the Aretusa spring is the Maniace Castle, built by Frederick II of Swabia as a fortress to protect the port and the city of Syracuse. The project was assigned to the skilled architect Riccardo da Lentini, who completed this magnificent work between 1232 and 1240. In homage to the memory of the valiant Byzantine general Giorgio Maniace, known for having reconquered the city from the hands of the Arabs in 1038, the palace was baptized with his own name, becoming the tangible symbol of the victory and strength of Syracuse.
It looks like a sturdy square-shaped castle with perimeter walls and four cylindrical towers at the corners.The niches on the sides of the portal were designed to contain bronze rams, while inside there is a copy of the only original ram. Refined decorative elements, such as sculptures of lions, a Telamon and a possible head of Frederick II, enrich the ribs of the vaults inside and the limestone columns, with polygonal bases and decorated capitals, add further charm through representations of rural scenes, human figures and snakes.
