User:Torre Gregoriana

Torre Gregoriana in Terracina

Torre Gregoriana in Terracina is part of a complex serie of coastal towers built as a defence system along the coasts of the Stato Pontificio from Ostia to Terracina against the increasingly violent Turkish attacks which took place throughout the XVI century.

Each tower could see the following one and be seen by the previous.Communication was therefore possible and in a short time signals were given at the sight of approaching pirate vessels.

Torre Gregoriana is in a very strategical position, between the Via Appia and the sea, just out of the town of Terracina, heading South.It was the last papal fortification on the sea before the Regno di Napoli.Therefore its essential role was to connect the coastal fortification system of the latter to the above mentioned tower defence system of the papal states.

In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII ordered the construction of this fortification along with other two towers situated nearby on the Via Appia.Expert builders from the Ticin area of Northern Italy were in charge of the works under the supervision of Giovanni Fontana(1540-1614.

After the threat of pirate attacks had subsided the tower became the place of control of all marittime activities in the area;the guardian was in charge of control and tax collection.

In the XIX century the tower was extended and became a private estate;but the Second World War brought the mighty tower back to its military role when the German Army made the tower its headquarters.

From this place the Germans could shot the enemy who was in the air and on the sea, almost undisturbed.When the end was near,before leaving,they mined Torre Gregoriana.The explosion destroyed the upper part of the tower but could nothing against the mighty base which still stands as a wounded soldier, a witness to posterity of the enduring hardships of war.

The debrise on the main route, due to the collapse of the fortification, caused surprise and difficulty to the Allied troups advancing from South.Local people say that,in a way,the tower actually delayed the end of the war.

References: Selaggi Emilio:Ambiente e storia ,August1994,C.O.R.E., Fondi Viganò Marino:Ticinesi Alla difesa di Roma ,Atti del Convegno di Locarno 2-3Giugno2007,Casagrande Editor Castellano Pietro:"Lo stato POntificio nei suoi rapporti geografici, storici, politici"Roma, 1837