Lantern Tower
From Piazza Sant’Antonio, at the end of the Cape, a small dirt road, bordered by two dry stone walls, leads straight to the tower of the lighthouse or the lantern. The tower rests on a rocky cusp that stands on a plateau about 80 meters above sea level.
In ancient times, this area was called San Nicolò, because of an old church that stood there.
The “Lantern Tower” was built in the sixteenth century: it was under construction around the sixties, and a “Memorial” of 1570, kept in the State Archive of Messina, complains that it has not yet been completed. It has a cylindrical structure, was reinforced laterally in later eras and is accessed by means of a masonry staircase. Conceived as a “lantern tower”, but certainly also as a watchtower, it has retained its ancient role of source of signals to sailors. It can rightly be defined as a panoramic point of regional importance: from it you can admire the horizon from Capo Calava to Capo Rasocolmo, with all the Aeolian Islands, and, to the south, the Gulf of Milazzo and that of Patti.
The surrounding area, made of terraces overlooking the sea and a plateau cultivated with olive groves and vineyards, is part of the Baronia, now owned by the Fondazione Lucifero. It has great naturalistic, geo-paleontological and archaeological interest. Not far away, the ancient rock church of Sant’Antonio da Padova, a pilgrimage destination on 13 June.
Fulco C., Picciolo L., Le torri di Milazzo – 2. Il Capo, in Milazzo Nostra