Ligny Tower (, ) is a coastal watchtower in

Trapani Trapani ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality (''comune'') with 54,887 inhabitants, 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 important fishing port and the mai ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. 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 The Barbary corsairs, Barbary pirates, Ottoman corsairs, or naval mujahideen (in Muslim sources) were mainly Muslim corsairs and privateers who operated from the largely independent Barbary states. This area was known in Europe as the Barba ...

. It was named after the Viceroy of Sicily, 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 Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the tower was used by the Regia Marina 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