Torre Maschio o Torre San Vito

Pretty

Beautiful

Ancient watchtower from the second half of the 16th century. About 1558. Private property belonging to the Maschio family since 1955.

Tower of San Vito or Torre Maschio or Torre Milone The tower of San Vito is also called Milone or di Liviero. It is also known as the Maschio tower, from the name of the family that owns the property. Born as a shelter and defense building, it is now a private home. It has a square plan, with a ground floor, a mezzanine and a first floor. It has a tuff stone masonry, plastered faux ashlar on the ground floor and smooth in the upper part. It is built with a vertical facing around and a truncated pyramidal exterior up to the first separation torus, on which the balcony shelf rests. The terminal part is without crowning. Historical-critical news Following the incursions of the Turks who since 1558 infested the Forian coasts, as a document of the Royal Court recalls, on 15/6/1567 "no less than 7 towers were erected by particular citizens, well equipped with weapons in which they can save the people of said hamlet when it is a Turkish raid ". Among these there is the Milone tower, to which the homonymous palace was added in the 18th century, which was therefore built mainly to defend the town that developed around the parish church of San Vito (XIV) as can be seen from the engraving on the frontispiece. of the book by G. Jasolino (1588). The Tower was then incorporated into the adjacent building initially used as a shelter for the poor and, as D'Ascia recalls (1867), the shelter was founded in 1854 by three young Forian priests, Giuseppe Milone, Saverio de Luca and Marcantonio Sorrentino, who they rented a room for the purpose in the S. Vito district. Four years later, as the inscription "Casa Giuseppe Milone 1858" engraved on the plaque placed on the portal recalls, one of the three, the Reverend Giuseppe Milone, bought the place and used it as a begging shelter for elderly people without families and disabled people. D'Ascia writes that "the place can hold up to 24 old people: they receive bed, linen, and all the material and spiritual help they need."