Mategriffon
Mategriffon or Matagrifone or Mathegriffon or Rocca Guelfonia was a medieval castle in Messina, Sicily, initially built as a wooden castle by Richard Ist, king of England and mostly demolished before his departure in 1191 from Messina for the conquest of Cyprus. Another reference to the castle is also made during the Sicilian Vespers, as the place where Charles I of Naples's Vicar Herbert and his family safely stayed during the uprising until their safe departure was negotiated.
During the reign of James II, Matagrifone was used to imprison Baroness Macalda di Scaletta and the Emir Margam ibn Sebir of Djerba, who passed the time playing chess together, the earliest recorded chess playing in Sicily. Only an octagonal tower remains of the castle today, known locally as "Macalda's Tower."
Mattegriffon was also an alternative name to the castle of Akova in the Peloponnese, which formed the seat of the Barony of Akova within the Principality of Achaea in the 13th and the 14th centuries.
