The Eyes of Milazzo
On the medieval walls of the castel of Milazzo stands a strange design with the stylized shape of a scarab, the Eyes of Milazzo.
The design of the Magic Scarab, composed of black ashlars of lava stone, inserted into a spur of the medieval walls of the castle of Milazzo, is directed towards the solstitial east, the astronomical point from which the sun rises on 21 June.
Disparate attributions exist on the origins and functions of this design.
Originally the decoration probably reproduced only "two eyes", from what can be deduced from the writings of an eighteenth-century author, and only later were the " antennae".
According to some theories it is the eye of the hawk Horus, an Egyptian symbol of impregnability.
According to other theories it is a "Beetle" to which an ancient symbolism is linked and could be an expression of mystical traditions esotericism of the Normans and the Swabians.
None of the theories, to date, has found confirmation in historical sources, but the eye of Milazzo continues to watch over the city.
