Cavalli Castle is one of the twenty-four castles that form part of the historic camp of Messina. The camp was built by the army between 1883 and 1902 to defend the southern territory of the new Italian state. The camp takes its name from General Giovanni Cavalli, an Italian soldier and the first inventor of the rifle. The camp is one of the city's strongest fortifications. It withstood the 1908 earthquake that destroyed Messina. It also survived both world wars. Cavalli Castle was recently declared an Artistic Cultural Property in Sicily.