The Cantoni tower, or Torre del Cantone, stands on the western seafront of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto and is included in the list of Sicily's coastal towers. The Cantoni area, on the Tyrrhenian shore between the mouths of the Saja d'Agri and the Patrì or Termini stream, was for centuries the natural landing place of Castroreale and Barcellona: here sailing ships loaded citrus fruit, oil, wine, earthenware jars and grain from the area. A dispatch of the viceroy Marco Antonio Colonna, issued in Palermo on 20 March 1579, granted Castroreale the area with the tower and the privilege of a loading station on the shore, which was never built.
What to see
The tower belongs to the system of watchtowers already ordered by the viceroy Juan de Vega, in the time of Charles V, against pirate raids: in the Parliament of 1579 the Sicilians allocated ten thousand scudi to restore existing towers and build new ones, with guards and instruments to spot corsair ships. The guarded landing had a few houses, storehouses and the church of Santa Maria della Sacra Lettera, begun in 1721 by sailors and local people and later abandoned.
Today the tower is a private house, flanked by the small Picardi chapel, cottages and storehouses. A raised terrace, shutters, a balcony on corbels, grey cement render and a staircase with an iron railing have changed its appearance; only the stone quoins are original.
Visiting
As private property, the tower can only be seen from outside. The stretch of beach with the tower remained under Castroreale until the final separation of 1823, when it passed to the new municipality of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto.
Our editors' tip
During the Napoleonic wars a pole telegraph was installed on the tower, in use for some years under the control of the British garrisons.
