The Torrione dominates with its high mass the Forian town on the seafront, within an urban and architectural context of considerable valu,
in which some valuable eighteenth-century buildings stand out, such as Palazzo Covatta, the Palazzetto, located right in front of the tower.
The Torrione
With its high bulk, the tower dominates the town of Foriano on the seafront, within an urban and architectural context of considerable value, in which some valuable eighteenth-century buildings stand out, such as Palazzo Covatta, the Palazzetto, located right in front of the tower. The tower, with a circular plan and a flat terraced roof, is spread over three floors, of which the lower one, to replace the base, is dug into the tufa rock on which it stands. The external parameter is made of tuffaceous and trachytic stone, roughly squared in blocks joined by mortar. The first bull, in trachytic stone, surrounds the cylinder at the first level, and the second serves as a support for the corbels which, connected by small arches, support the crenellated crowning. The three floors are covered by hemispherical vaults, the upper one with a lunette. The top level is accessed via an external staircase of which the second cantilevered ramp is delimited by the broken parapet, according to a motif in use in the minor architecture of Foriano. An internal staircase creates the connection with the roof terrace. Continuing along the same via del Torrione you arrive in the main course of Forio, once dedicated to King Umberto I, today by the lawyer. Francis Queens. Walking for about one hundred meters to the left, right in front of the beautiful Basilica of Santa Maria di Loreto there is the Tower of "Corso Umberto".
Historical-critical news
The Torrione is the largest tower in Forio: very high to dominate the entire town, enclosed in a dense fabric of buildings almost all of valuable architectural consistency such as Palazzo Covatta (18th century); the building in Via Torrione (18th century) and the destroyed Cappella Regine (18th century); until a few years ago, in terms of conversation, it was the best of the coastal towers. It was built at the University's expense in 1480 as a lookout and defense tower, to deal with the incursions of Barbarossa and other corsairs to which Forio was particularly exposed. Others date the monument back to the first decades of the 16th century, based on a report on the situation of Forio and the island of Ischia presented to the Regia Camera della Sommaria in 1574, kept in the State Archives of Naples. The author of the report, Pirro Antonio Stinca, writes of "a large Tower built at the expense of the University of their own Casale de Foria which for this work they took at interest from seven hundred ducats, as well equipped with some pieces of iron artillery a piece of brunzo and other weapons for his defense" (Delizia, 1987, p. 150). The University of Forio, then, already burdened with debts, for the construction of the tower was further indebted for about seven hundred ducats. This important defensive structure was built on a tufaceous rock outcrop in a strategic position, near the beach, so as to dominate the port from above. The circular shape allowed a full view and was also the most suitable for the angle of the guns. As evidenced by D'Ascia (1867), the tower was in fact equipped with four bronze cannons which, once the danger of pirate raids had ceased, were used to fire blanks during the festivities; this custom lasted until 1788, the year in which it was forbidden, following an accident that occurred during the feast of the Incoronata on 29 July 1787, costing the life of a gunner of the tower. As for all the other external defense towers equipped with artillery, until the eighteenth century, to watch over the Torrione, there was a lookout, called torriere, appointed annually by the mayor in office, who had the task of raising the alarm in case of sighting of enemy ships and to command the garrison which lodged on the first floor. The lower floor was used as a warehouse for provisions and artillery; there was also a small cistern for collecting rainwater. The Torrione gave way to the construction of a series of other watchtowers, defense and refuges, both circular and square, near the port, at the mouth of a road or in the innermost areas cultivated by the inhabitants of Forio. These towers were built by the population above all in the 16th century, when the attacks by pirates intensified (disastrous that of Ariadeno Barbarossa in 1544, followed by the raids of Dragut and other corsairs), to form an effective and uninterrupted system of fortifications on the territory. The aforementioned report of 1574 attests to the existence of seven towers: "and in the aforementioned hamlet of Foria there are seven towers built for particular citizens well equipped with arms, in which the people of the said hamlet can be saved, when it is Turchi" (cf. Monti, 1980, p. 623 and Delizia, 1987, p. 150). In 1800 the Torrione was transformed into a prison; a period of abandonment followed, as evidenced by the deed of November 17, 1844, in which the Decurionate decided to allocate twenty ducats for "urgently needed repairs to the ancient tower", and D'Ascia himself, who says it was unused and in ruins. In 1900 it was used as a museum to house a collection of works by the artist from Foriano Giovanni Maltese who towards the end of the 19th century had obtained the building on a long-term lease from the Municipality and had adapted it as his home and studio. Although a municipal resolution of 1969 sanctioned in an extraordinary session urgent measures to ensure the stability of the Tower (some merlons threatened to fall) and to allocate the monument to cultural purposes, Sardella (1985) and Delizia (1987) testify that the tower was abandoned and in a state of dangerous dilapidation, while until a few years earlier it boasted the best state of conservation among the coastal towers. Currently, after restorations carried out in the 1980s, the lower hall houses the Museo Civico del Torrione and is used for temporary exhibitions, the upper one houses the Museo Civico Giovanni Maltese, where the sculptures and paintings left by the artist's wife are conserved. Common.