Cabrera Tower in Marina di Ragusa
The Torre Cabrera di Marina di Ragusa, also known as Torre di Gaddimeli, is a coastal defense tower located on the south side of the central square of Marina a few meters from the sea and from the old port.
The danger of the assaults of the Turkish fleets pushed the various viceroys of Sicily in the sixteenth century to create a defense and sighting system through the restoration or construction of military towers from scratch; these towers had to be all visible and capable of communicating through fire and smoke signals (but also sound and visual) any danger coming from the sea. The Florentine architect Camillo Camilliani was commissioned to design this system of towers in 1584. He identifies an important port with a tonnara and warehouses in the Marina di Ragusa area but believes that these were already protected by the presence of the nearby quagmire of the Castellana therefore not he thought it was functional to equip the yard with a tower. However, Count Luigi Enriquez Cabrera asked the viceroy Marcantonio Colonna to build a tower at his own expense to defend the port and the commercial activities of the area where he himself had important properties. His request was accepted and, in 1579 the works were completed.
Although the tower was not of considerable size, it was equipped with a considerable number of cannons and housed a small garrison of soldiers.
In 1606 the tower was the protagonist of a dramatic episode: a Turkish vessel docked near the port, the Turks disguised as Christians attacked a moored boat and took prisoner the guardian of the tower.
