The Castello del Carmine or Sperone was commissioned in 1382 by Charles III of Durazzo. It was located in the southern corner of the city walls near a tower called Sperone, in the Mercato district. Of the castle, unconsciously demolished in 1906 to make a concrete casting, only the Spinella Tower and a stretch of Aragonese walls that flank it remain. A few years ago, the gateway to the Tower, walled up for decades, was found, where Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel was imprisoned before being led to the gallows on August 20, 1799.
The tower was known in Bourbon times as a ‘beer guard’ and housed those sentenced to death in the hours leading up to their execution. The door that was found led to the cell where the condemned people were housed before the execution in Piazza Mercato.
