Saracen Tower

The Saracen Tower in Amalfi rises as a solitary, rugged stone cylinder perched directly above the crashing surf of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It belongs to a coastal defense network commissioned in the sixteenth century to spot pirate ships approaching from North Africa. During the summer of fifteen forty-four, the notorious pirate Ariadeno Barbarossa used the confusion of a local storm to bypass such coastal warnings and sack the town. The tower remains a weathered witness to those years of constant, desperate maritime vigilance.