La torre di Manfria, sentinella nel golfo di Gela: attività di conoscenza, conservazione e documentazione

During the Spanish kingdom of Charles V, Sicily occupied a strategic role in the control of the Mediterranean Sea. It was, then, necessary to consolidate the ancient network of coastal fortifications through the realisation of a renewed and capillary system of sight towers along the entire perimeter of the island. The Viceroy Marcantonio Colonna entrusted Tiburzio Spannocchi before and later Camillo Camilliani with the task of detecting and documenting the ‘circumference of the Kingdom’. Their observations and drawings were at the heart of an innovative defence system implemented by sight towers (both new to be built and antique to reinforce). Their location presupposed the visual correspondence between the various fortifications so that, once the Moorish galleys were sighted, the news of the imminent danger coming from the sea would spread widely and quickly. Taking its cue from an analysis of such fortifications network, this work intends to encourage a reflection on these ancient military structures, still little investigated, due to both the inaccessibility of sites and the lack of adequate documentary sources. It aims to explore and compare the settlements, the morphology and landscape aspects, the material peculiarities and the constructive features, thus evaluating the current criticalities and the possibilities of their recovery. In particular, as an exemplary pilot project, the paper will focus on one of the most interesting cases: the tower of Manfria in Gela.