Area Marina Protetta Capo Rizzuto

At the beginning of the first millenium, the necessity of the Normans to face the powerful Arabian army favoured the birth of a feudal-like economic and political system in the South of Italy. Wide areas around Crotone were enfeoffed, and autonomous fortified microsystems for each feudal concession were built.
Since the existing defensive means were not sufficient to face the new fire-arms, with the resumption of Turkish raids, both the Aragonese and the Spanish viceroys ordered new works of fortification on the coast, and in the South of Italy a permanent system of coastal defence was created. The project consisted of the building of coastal towers in order to report the arrival of the enemies' ships in the whole kingdom.