Volterraio Castle

The medieval Volterraio Castle on the Isola d’Elba is found at the top of a high plain on the border between the towns of Portoferraio and Rio nell’Elba, and dates to the 12th century. It is believed that its name comes from the Latin Vultur (vulture), but it could also derive from the architect Vanni Gherardo Rau, who came from Volterra and was hired by the Pisans in 1231 to fortify the castle built nearly 200 years prior.

Beginning at the end of the 4th century CE, the top of the hill where the building is located was used as a “high plain fortress”, necessary for the strategic importance Elba had acquired in the Tyrrhenian Sea and for the presence of mineral resources. Volterraio was later made part of the Island’s defense system devised by the Republic of Pisa. Thanks to impressive reinforcements carried out around 1440, the castle was able to resist an attack by the Turks in 1544. Centuries later, in 1798, French troops based in Portoferraio further strengthened the stronghold, but a civic uprising half-destroyed the complex. From that moment it was definitively abandoned, until 2016 when, after restoration works, it was reopened to the public.