Barbarossa Captures Capri: 1535

Mavi Boncuk |

One man's patriot is another's pirate. Barbarossa [1] ("Redbeard") was the most famous of four Ottoman brothers whose adventures thrilled the Turkish empire (and fellow Muslims) and tormented the Christian kingdoms. In 1535, he captured the beautiful isle of Capri, a very short sail from one of the richest cities of Christendom: Naples. He built a castle on the Italian island that stands to this day as Castello Barbarossa. Much of the original layout has been changed over the centuries. The time of its construction is still matter of debate, but is considered to be some time between the eleventh and thirteenth century.

The Castle of Barbarossa is part of the Villa San Michele property, currently owned by the Swedish Consulate. The observatory was then founded in 1956, by the Swedish Ornithological Society in cooperation with San Michele Foundation. The aim was to study the bird migration at a site half-way between the winter quarter in tropical Africa and breeding areas in Sweden and around the Baltic Sea. This area was once premium bird hunting territory, until the practice was finally forbidden following the persistent complaints of Axel Munthe and the physician's campaigns to abolish the shooting of migratory birds.

[1] Ottoman admiral (Redbeard) Barbaros Khayr ad-Dīn, original name Khiḍr (1478-1546) Barbary pirate, by whose initiative Algeria and Tunisia became part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1533 he was made admiral of the Ottoman fleet.For three centuries after his death, Mediterranean coastal towns and villages were ravaged by his pirate successors. Khiḍr was one of four sons of a Turk from the island of Lesbos. Hatred of the Spanish and Portuguese who attacked North Africa between 1505 and 1511 encouraged Khiḍr and his brother (Oruc)ʿArūj to intensify their piracy. They hoped, with the aid of Turks and Muslim emigrants from Spain, to wrest an African domain for themselves.