City
Castra Minervae
Castro
Listen to the story
Castra Minervae, the fortress of Minerva, goddess of wisdom and crafts, was a town of the Sallentini where the small town of Castro in Apulia lies today. Its old temple of Minerva gave the place its fame. The Roman poet Virgil and the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus both tell that Aeneas, fleeing Troy, first set foot in Italy here and called the anchorage the Harbour of Venus. Another legend named the Cretan king Idomeneus as its founder. Much later a bishop's town stood on the site, until the Turks burned it in 1537.