Ligny Tower ( it, Torre di Ligny, scn, Turrignì) is a

coastal The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in ...

watchtower A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to ...

Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an imp ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. It was built between 1671 and 1672 at a strategic position on the city's western coast. Today, the tower is in good condition, and it is open to the public as an archaeological museum.

History

Ligny Tower was built on a narrow strip of land on Trapani's western coast, to defend the city from attacks by the Barbary corsairs. It was named after the

Viceroy of Sicily This is a list of viceroys of Sicily: Aragonese direct rule 1409–1516 * John of Aragon, Duke of Peñafiel, later king John II of Aragon, 1458–1479, acted 1409–1416. * Domingo Ram y Lanaja, Bishop of Lleida 1416–1419 * Antonio de Cardona ...

, Claude Lamoral, 3rd Prince of Ligne, who had ordered its construction. The tower was designed by the Flemish architect Carlos de Grunenbergh. It has a square base with scarped walls, with four corner turrets which originally contained lanterns. The tower was proposed in a meeting held at Palermo on 11 January 1670. Construction began in 1671, and it was inaugurated in October 1672. A passage connecting the tower with the mainland was built in 1806, and guns were installed on the tower's roof until 1862. It was subsequently used as a semaphore station, but it was eventually abandoned. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the tower was used by the

Regia Marina The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' ("M ...

and was armed with anti-aircraft guns.

Present day

The tower was restored in 1979 by the architect Francesco Terranova. Since 1983, the tower has been an archaeological museum, known as ''Museo civico Torre di Ligny''.

References

{{authority control Trapani Towers in Sicily Towers completed in 1672 Museums in Sicily Archaeological museums in Italy Museums established in 1983 1672 establishments in the Kingdom of Sicily