Saracen Tower
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Saracen Tower

The Saracen tower is located in the historic center, in the Bùcalo district, next to the Mother Church of the Madonna del Carmelo. It was not built by the Saracens, but as a defense against their raids. Its construction dates back to 1506. It has a cylindrical shape and has an annexed crenellated building dating back to the same period. The building has two floors above ground, the tower has three. Studies conducted in 2002 by the local historian Salvatore Coglitore ascertained the existence both under the tower and under the building, of two underground floors, one of which accessible and the other full of alluvial debris dating back to the floods of the Savoca stream in 1934 and 1958 It is clear, therefore, that this building during the Middle Ages must have exceeded 15 meters in height. Inserted in the sixteenth-century defensive system of the coastal towers of Sicily, the Torre dei Saraceni had a certain importance in the territory; so much so that, on 12 August 1695, the deed separating the village of Pagliara from the administration of Savoca was stipulated and proclaimed it an autonomous municipality.

On the occasion of the Sicilian Revolution of 1848, the building complex (as well as the nearby tower of the Baglio) in March 1849, was hit and damaged by cannon fire from the naval units of the Navy of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies at the end of the bloody siege of Messina in 1848/49 .

After a few decades of total abandonment, in 1892, the Torre di Saraceni was restored, but this intervention changed its original connotations: in fact, it still today presents the characteristics and style deriving from the restoration of 1895. Until the end of the eighteenth century, the tower of Saraceni was connected to the Baglio tower, about 500 meters away, via an underground tunnel. Later, the tower was sold to private owners.

 

Source: Wikipedia

Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero

Information contributions: Web

Photo: By Eugenio Nicola Scarcella – Own work, Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45788740

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