Visit Ischia

Description

The construction is characterized by turrets and pointed arches and small circular towers. The plan of the remaining building is square.
Initially isolated, this building is now part of a large hotel complex, situated in an area apparently not changed much, in the view from the sea.

Historical Info

Half of the Castle tower house of Louis Patalano, has an ancient history and fascinating. The name "Mezzatorre" according to the popular memory, derives from the presence of an ancient lookout tower remained unfinished from here "Half" and built between the XVI and XVII century as a watchtower by the Aragonese. It was enlarged in the eighteenth century and incorporated into a new building at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the dukes of Rancidello. The building is mentioned under the name of the Crow Tower to repair the towers in the Land of Labor in a letter dated February 13, 1741 kept at the State Archives of Naples (Room Sommaria, Consultationum, vol. 189, c. 120 -125): it would, therefore, directed the only tower in Forio. From the testimony of Ignatius Fiorentino, grandson of one of the owners of the tower, reported by Barbieri, we learn that once the tower's ground floor was occupied by a basement and first floor but there was a large room, with stowage rooms. Then there were the terraces, with two guard towers on either side of the tower. In the thirties, the tower was used as a guesthouse. One of the owners was Patalano Louis, a distinguished scholar, politician and poet foriano, founder of political-cultural magazine, which has transformed the tower into the active site of a cultural salon.