Torrefano

Torrefano is the name of a locality located in the surroundings of Pachino. This takes its name from an ancient signal tower, called precisely Torre Fano, which was part of a system of watchtowers created to defend against frequent pirate raids and assaults by Saracen pirates. In case of enemy ship sightings, the tower’s keepers had the task, through a system of fire and smoke signals (so-called fani), of alerting the other towers scattered along the coast.
The tower was built in the early 15th century and was included in the context of a plan to fortify the entire Sicilian coast; it originally had a cylindrical shape and an extremely simple architectural structure. It consisted of a basement with no external access, a raised floor on which the entrance opened, reached by a removable ladder, and a terrace. It was a very small tower, with a diameter of only six meters and a height of about ten meters.
To date, what remains of the old tower is a small ruin, located along the Pachino-Portopalo road.