Amigo's Castle — Attraction in Lightning Ridge

There is much to experience in Lightning Ridge, with a range of different length, self drive tours, based on a “Mud Map” available from the Tourist information centre as you approach the township, for a small fee. Each tour is colour coded & marked with painted car doors, to make it easy to follow. One such trip, the “ Red car door “ led us to Amigo’s Castle on Black Prince Drive, an amazing building that was built solely by an Italian gentleman Vittorio Stefanato, as a labour of love, over a 20 year period. It is a replica of a castle in Italy, where he played as a little boy, many years ago, & wanted to have a residence that reminded him of his homeland. He gathered the Iron stone that was just laying around in the surrounding area & would position them just using wooden planks on top of 44 gallon drums. A remarkable feat indeed. We were totally enthralled with the story by the very knowledgeable Anita, who manages the castle & is his business partner. She a self taught painter, with beautiful art works on display, inside the...

This is a little gem hidden in amongst the opal stories of 'the ridge'. There is a $5 charge and it is worth it just to hear the story and see the random items collected. Anita works there 7 days a week and has a little art gallery inside the castle itself with some intriguing pieces. The reason for it being built varies but to be honest you look at the architecture and layout of the courtyard and you could be in Italy (until you look out the back at the various rusted trucks, doors and ever present links to opal mining). A bit like the artisan baths, this could be so much more given the number of tourists who stop here. That said if you are visiting the 'ridge', this along with the John Murphy art gallery and the artisan baths are...

Do not bother. Was greeted by a rude woman who expected full payment (cash only) for a family to enter only to be told the castle was closed and only the outside artefacts on display were available to look at. She did not give us the history of the location either she just sat down on a chair. A complete scammer. Other locals then informed us that Amigo is awaiting trial for murder. A major blight on an otherwise great town in country NSW

I was contacted by the owner and offered a refund. I sent them my bank details. After several weeks, I am still waiting for the refund. As such, I repeat my review - DO NOT GO THERE UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR FAMILY...