The Torre Ognina is an old lookout tower on the point of Ognina, a coastal and seaside locality of Siracusa about 15 kilometres south of the city, near Fontane Bianche.
What to see
The tower was used for lookout in the Spanish period and is one of the ten main towers of Siracusa's municipal territory, a legacy of a warlike past centred on watching and defending the coast. Ognina is today a seaside and holiday locality, with a canal harbour historically much used by seafarers, even simply to take on fresh water and to find shelter. The name of the cape, in ancient Greek Makròn Àkron and in Latin Longum Promontorium, that is «long promontory», describes the impression given by the whole of the rocky bluffs stretching towards the sea.
Recent history also passes through here: around 3 in the morning of 10 July 1943 the first troop of the 3rd Army Commando landed between Capo Ognina and Fontane Bianche, tasked with taking, among the strongpoints near the inlet of Ognina, that of Torre Cuba; in the same area another old tower, the Torre Ognina, was also targeted.
Visiting
The tower stands on the point of Ognina; the area is frequented mainly in summer for the sea, and conditions of access and visiting for the tower should be checked on the spot, because the sources consulted do not give them.
Our editors' tip
Look at the coast from the point as the lookouts did: the wide horizon over the sea explains why here, as in nine other main towers of the territory, a watch was kept against those arriving from the open water.
