GIGLIO CASTELLO

In the highest and most inland part of the island is the ancient castle hamlet, a medieval fortress surrounded by mighty walls with a wealth of towers or “trioni”. The last defensive bulwark stands out at the top, the imposing twelfth-century Pisan fortress.  The main entrance is unusual, with three gateways in rapid succession alongside immense granite rocks that give a strong impression of protection and power. On the western side of the hamlet, next to the ancient walls, is the church of Saint Peter the Apostle, restored in the eighteenth century, but dating from the 1600s. Inside you can admire beautifully crafted sacred objects, fonts, seventeenth-century paintings from the Venetian and Florentine schools, chalices and monstrances made of engraved silver, a small and extremely precious ivory crucifix attributed to Giambologna (sixteenth century) and Saracen weapons, with silver hilt and golden inlay, bearing witness to the Saracens’ hasty flight after the last raid in 1799.