It is the first sight you can see from a ferry approaching Corfu. It was constructed in the 15th-century on the site of a former Byzantine castle, with an artificial moat to make it more secure. The fortress was connected to land by a movable wooden bridge up until 1819, when the British army replaced it with a 60 metre long pathway which still remains today. The entrance to the fortress is in Corfu towns square, Spinanda, and is arched with a Venetian symbol carved into the marble at the top. Today, the fortress houses the Public library of Corfu and The Hellenic Music Research Lab of the Ionian University