Torre di Ligny

Explore further

The surviving inscription and seventeenth-century archival documents provide unusually detailed evidence for the construction of Torre di Ligny, while nineteenth-century historical studies reveal how interpretations of its origins changed as new documentary evidence was examined.

Strengthening Trapani's defences

Torre di Ligny was constructed during a period of concern over Sicily's maritime security. Salvatore Romano's study places its construction within a wider programme of coastal fortification undertaken during the viceroyalty of Prince de Ligne, following the allocation of substantial funds by the Sicilian Parliament for strengthening the island's defences.

The documentary evidence allows the progress of the tower to be followed particularly closely. A dispatch dated 29 October 1671 refers to fortification works at Pietro Palazzo as well as at the Colombaia. On 6 April 1672, official correspondence already refers specifically to the Torre di Lignè and discusses the provision of guards and artillery. Further documents from May concern cannon, soldiers and signalling lanterns, while correspondence of 22 June 1672 indicates that the principal structure was substantially complete.

The latter document provides some rare details of the remaining building work. These included completing the parapet, constructing four sentry boxes, fitting doors, laying paving or brickwork, whitewashing parts of the structure and waterproofing the cistern.

Dating the tower

The date of Torre di Ligny's construction became the subject of historical debate during the nineteenth century. In his 1879 survey of the monuments of the Province of Trapani, historian Giuseppe Polizzi stated that the tower had been constructed in 1673, after the popular disturbances that occurred in Trapani that year.

In 1896, historian Salvatore Romano re-examined the question in La costruzione della Torre di Lignè ed i tumulti popolari a Trapani nel 1673, published in the Archivio Storico Siciliano. Drawing on the tower's inscription and contemporary archival records, Romano demonstrated that construction had begun considerably earlier.

The tower's Latin inscription itself records the year MDCLXXI (1671) and describes the fortification as having been erected “for the security of the Kingdom.” More importantly, Romano's sequence of independently dated documents confirms work at Pietro Palazzo in October 1671 and shows the tower being armed and staffed during 1672. The evidence therefore places its construction within the wider programme of maritime defence rather than as a response to the disturbances of 1673.

From fortress to museum

A new chapter in the tower's history began in 1983, when the Museo Civico di Preistoria was inaugurated within the building. The museum was conceived by the Soprintendenza as a didactic and exhibition centre through which the prehistoric archaeology of the Trapani area could be presented to the public.

Its establishment also addressed a problem facing the area's archaeological heritage: the removal and undocumented private collection of artefacts. The archaeological study notes that such collecting could destroy archaeological contexts and associations and impoverish sites that might subsequently become impossible to identify. The museum therefore combined its educational purpose with the preservation of archaeological material from the territory.