The Castle of the Egg (Castrum Ovi, in Latin – Castel Dell’Ovo in Italian) is the oldest castle in Naples, inseparable from the history of its foundation by a people of Greek origin, addressing the islet of Partenope and where they built a defensive system in the seventh century B.C.
The building is located on a small island, Megaride, where the colonists of Cumae founded the original nucleus of the city. In the first century B.C., the Roman patrician Lucius Licinius Lucullus built on the site a magnificent villa Castellum Lucullanum. Fortified by Valentinian III in the early fifth century, it was here that the last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was exiled by Odoacer in 476. Eugippius founded a monastery on the site after 492.