La difesa dello Stretto di Messina nel XIX Secolo: le torri martello come baluardo all’espansione francese

Abstract The Martello towers, located along the Sicilian coast north of Messina, represent an important historical and architectural testimony at the beginning of the nineteenth century during the British protectorate constituting a key element of their defensive strategy. These defensive structures, designed to stem the expansion of Napoleon Bonaparte, are named after the Torre di Mortella, a Genoese tower located in Corsica on the coast near Punta Mortella in the municipality of Saint-Florent, Haute-Corse. Built in a cylindrical or truncus-conical shape and made of sturdy stone material, the towers were equipped with thick walls that guaranteed significant resistance to bombing. Their strategic location along the coast allowed to monitor and protect critical points of the area, in particular the Strait of Messina, a sea passage of great strategic importance. Today, many of these towers are objects of interest and need a programmed conservation in order to preserve their memory and the surviving physical consistency. This paper explores the history, architecture and strategic importance of the Martello towers in the Strait of Messina, analysing their role in coastal defence and their current state of conservation.