Top of the World
The Calarossa Tower è a coastal tower located in the municipality of San Nicandro Garganico at the resort of the same name. It was built in 1569 during the strengthening of defense of the southern Adriatic coast by Spanish viceroy Don Pedro of Toledo after 1532. Currently è reduced to a ruin: two imposing walls, the one facing north and the one facing west, are still visible. The toponym è probably due to the morphological character of the coast, with rocks with a high percentage of ferrite, a ferrous component that gives the stone its reddish color. No documents speak specifically about this tower, except for a 1594 sketch by Gambacorta. È is known as a tower with three machicolations (thus smaller than the nearby Mileto Tower and is also mentioned as such in some authoritative essays on Gargano coastal towers although data from recent surveys and measurements, develop a reconstruction of the tower, which turns out to be five machicolations. At one time this tower constituted together with the nearby Mileto Tower (about 2 km away), the Scampamorte Tower, found on the isthmus of Lesina, the Fortore Tower and the Varano Towers, an imposing and communicating defensive system of the northern Gargano. A visit today allows only two walls facing north and west to be appreciated. The’original building probably consisted of a tower with five machicolations. Torre Cala Rossa è built on the cliff about 50 m. from the shoreline, where some karst channels seem to channel rainwater from Monte D’Elio. The’landscape insertion, in an environment dominated by Mediterranean scrubland è of certain impact. The place name probably originates from the reddish color of the ferrite-rich rocks.
