It is located on the summit of a hill overlooking the town, on a site first fortified in the Neolithic era.

The castle was built as a result of the strategic importance of the Milazzo peninsula, which commands the Gulf of Patti, the body of water that separates Sicily from the Aeolian Islands.

The Greeks built an acropolis in the 8th or 7th centuries BC, and the Romans and Byzantines modified the site into a castrum.

[citation needed] Between 1496 and 1508, the Aragonese built walls with six semi-circular bastions, encircling the original medieval castle.

[3] Between 1525 and 1540, the Spanish built bastioned fortifications around the Aragonese walls and the settlement which surrounded it, expanding the castle into a citadel.

[4] Although it is commonly called a castle, the Castello di Milazzo is more precisely a fortified town or citadel, since it housed several public and private edifices, such as a cathedral and a Benedictine convent.

The ruins of the Palazzo dei Giurati (Jurors' Palace) and of the older church of Santa Maria are also present.