The coastal towers of the Salento area

The tower is all that remains of the Castle of Castiglione, built in the eleventh century and disappeared together with the homonymous village towards the end of the sixteenth century. The tower, which currently belongs to the Pachiè family, was the subject of some restoration work in the early 1970s.

Torre Santa Maria dell'Alto, or simply Torre dell'Alto, is a coastal tower of Salento located in the municipality of Nardò and falling within the Park of Porto Selvaggio and Palude del Capitano.

The tower stands alone in the woods that cover the hill of Santo Stefano, in a dominant position over the village of Candia Canavese. The lower part of the structure is made of stone while the upper part is made of brick.&nbsp;Access to the tower is allowed by a door that is several meters above the ground.

To this day the tourist can benefit from the view of these beautiful buildings, some of which are also accessible for a visit. Each tower has its own story to tell, so that its visitor can be enchanted in fantasizing about the vicissitudes that took place inside.

In a breathtaking natural setting that enchants any eye, from the most superficial to the most demanding. From an architectural point of view, the Tower has a truncated pyramidal base with a square plan, without openings.

Torre Castiglione, built around 1568 and located in an uninhabited area of the coast between Torre Lapillo and Torre Colimena, in the current municipality of Porto Cesareo, is among the least known of the defensive system consisting of coastal watchtowers wanted by Charles V to counter the frequent incursions of Turkish pirates in Salento. Of this tower today only ruins remain.

The Ionian coast of Salento, especially in the area of Porto Cesareo, is characterized by a cordon of coastal towers, originally designed to defend the territory                from attacks by pirates or other peoples who, having come from the sea,                                                                  aimed to plunder the                                                                             Salento populations,                                                                                            taking possession of                                                                  every good that the                                                                                      land could offer them.

The native populations therefore needed defense and for this reason it was decided to create a series of sighting towers that would allow to notice the arrival of the enemy sufficiently in advance, so as to allow the population to prepare an efficient attack in protection of its territory.

The tower was built in the second half of the sixteenth century with defensive functions designed by the Spanish viceroy Don Pietro da Toledo who drew up a system of control of the coasts of the Salento peninsula. It was finished building already in 1569 by the master neretino Angelo Spalletta.

Torre Squillace is one of the most beautiful observation towers that the Salento coast can offer to its visitor. The tower, dating back to the seventeenth century, is located a few meters from the beach, between the towns of Sant'Isidoro and Porto Cesareo.