Red Tower in Fiumefreddo di Sicilia
Torre Rossa in Fiumefreddo di Sicilia is a funereal building from the Roman era which presents formal and construction characteristics of notable artistic and historical interest: the type and structure of the mausoleum has no equals in the entire region.
The construction technique allows us to date the funerary tower at the end of the 2nd century AD. Hypothesis confirmed by the fact that after this period the practice of cremation was progressively abandoned.
It stands on slightly sloping land planted with citrus groves and is in a poor state of conservation. It owes its name to the terracotta brick wall parameter, whose patina is still evident despite wear, which gives it a characteristic reddish colour.
The building looks like a tower with a square base. Its regularity is now compromised by its progressive deterioration which, in particular, has corroded the lower part. It reaches, on one side, a height of about eight metres; the other three sides are approximately 1 meter underground. The façade on the North side is where most of the facing has been preserved: the texture of the bricks presents a precise and elegant use of terracotta elements alternating in thickness.
On the downstream side of the building a large wall is superimposed section, built in the 17th-18th century, built with the aim of creating an internal room for peasant uses. On this wall there is an opening which gives access to the semi-hypogeum room. The room has, on three walls, pairs of rectangular niches ending in an arch once used to house vases or funerary urns. Among these there are small recesses used to house oil lamps. On the fourth wall there are traces of an access staircase.
