Castel Sant'Elmo and the Pedamentina

Neapel · Italien · Fortress

A high-spirited figure in white startles people on the 414-step stair. Behind the rusted grate below, moaning rises from the pit.

The star-shaped fortress on the Vomero hill was built from tuff carried up the Pedamentina, the stair of 414 steps that winds down the slope. Up there, and above all on the stair itself, a figure in white is said to keep company. The accounts agree unusually well: it is not threatening but high-spirited, appearing behind people and seeming to enjoy the fright before it is gone. At the first flight a rusted grate is set into the rock, opening onto the castle's underground. From there come the sounds tradition puts words to: weeping and moaning from prisoners who in Angevin times were lowered into the pit and left. The fortress served as a prison for centuries, into the twentieth.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Castel Sant'Elmo and the Pedamentina?

Castel Sant'Elmo and the Pedamentina ligger i Neapel, Italien.