Torre di Guevara, Renaissance tower in Cartaromana Bay, Ischia, Italy.
Torre di Guevara is a square-plan turreted house on three above-ground levels, its sloping lower level closed by a torus of rough stone, near the Bay of Cartaromana facing the Aragonese Castle. Pumice-framed openings place it in the Neapolitan Renaissance and Mannerist tradition of a house-garden, set in a large garden that once had high walls on two sides, of which traces remain.
Giovanni di Guevara built this tower in the late 15th century after receiving his knighthood from King Alfonso I of Aragon. It was part of a broader strategy to defend the island against sea-based attacks.
The tower's name also recalls the small church of Sant'Anna nearby, and the garden once bordered a spring that Giovanni Boccaccio wrote about. Today the building serves as a venue for art exhibitions, hosting shows by Arnaldo Pomodoro in 2003 and Hidetoshi Nagasawa in 2006.
The tower stands in a garden sloping down to the Cartaromana waters, facing the Aragonese Castle and a short distance from the Sant'Anna cliffs. It is used today as a multipurpose venue for art exhibitions and cultural events, so access depends on the programme of the organising circle.
Restoration campaigns led by the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden allowed the wall decorations to be attributed to reworkings of works by the Flemish sixteenth-century artist Hans Vredeman de Vries. The tower now hosts art exhibitions, including shows by Arnaldo Pomodoro in 2003 and Hidetoshi Nagasawa in 2006.
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