Torre Longa
Along the road that leads to Piazza Sant’Antonio al Capo, on the left, what now appears as an unformed stony cumulus, represents what remains of the Torre Longa (also called, in the past, Torre del Campanaro or Torre di Patti).
Quadrangular shape, with about 8 meters of side, was built with local stones (not only simple quarry stones, but also calcareous stones with fossils of light beige color, coming from the fossil beaches of the quaternary of Capo Milazzo) on a rocky base, about 50 meters above sea level, to check the sea and in particular all the west coast, with frontal view of the city of Patti (from which one of its names).
Built probably towards the end of the 16th century to strengthen the defenses of the peninsula, it managed to remain intact until the 70s, as documented by photographs that, together with nineteenth-century drawings, allow you to know the original architecture.
In the 1980s, the road to Capo Milazzo was extended and the remains of the diruta tower were destroyed. They were saved thanks to the tenacity of cultural and environmental associations, with the WWF of Milazzo, and the consequent intervention of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. Today its “pile of stones” is one of the testimonies of the past of our Promontory.
Fulco C., Picciolo L., Le torri di Milazzo – 2. Il Capo, in Milazzo Nostra