Itinerario 23

The Cabrera Tower, also present on the banner, stands, imposing and majestic, on the cliff of the coast of Pozzallo. Built in late medieval style of the Aragonese period in Hyblean stone, powerful and massive to guard the coast, it was built in the early fifteenth century at the behest of the Count of Modica Bernat Cabrera, exponent of one of the most illustrious Catalan families, who supported and financed the Spanish rulers in the reconquest of Sicily and in return had the County of Modica confiscated from the rebels Chiaramonte. The square-plan building with a side of about 20 meters on the side and a height of 28 meters, is divided into three floors plus the terrace that currently lacks the battlements, keeps outside the sixteenth-century escarpment bastion, which juts out over the sea with the imposing terrace, equipped with the troniere to maneuver the artillery pieces prescribed by the needs of the defensive system of Sicily in the Mediterranean, sea of raids and conflicts. Following the recent restorations, it has been shown that it is not a defense tower but a “palacium” that combined the function of a noble residence with that of a control point for grains and goods that, coming from the inside, were loaded by the loader. The tower, in fact, served for the preventive sighting of the Pirates who at that time infested the Mediterranean often aiming at the warehouses of the Loader, where the grain that boarded in Pozzallo was stored reached the farthest points of the entire Mediterranean. Inside the tower, however, there are some of the rooms used by the nobles, recognizable by the cross vaults where the carved coats of arms depicting the coat of arms of the noble Catalan family of Cabrera stand out.