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TORRE FERRARA

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Architecture
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Introduction

This is a fortified farmhouse. Its architectural structure shows that a defence tower with a square floorplan was built close to the original farmhouse during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The fact the tower was separate from the body of the house was to enable more effective defence.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, attacks by Turkish and Algerian pirates became more frequent. Their aim was to capture people and then demand ransoms, and also to pillage for loot.

The coastal farmhouses suffered most from the intensity of these attacks, and so complaints and demands for fortification by the farmers were frequent, but it was not until 1577 that authorisation was given for individuals to be allowed to fortify the farmhouses.
 

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