S. Alessio Siculo
Origins
The coastal region where the town of Sant'Alessio is located was sparsely populated in medieval times, due to the high exposure of that area to the raids of Saracen pirates . In this period the epicenter of the socio-economic activities (mainly agriculture and fishing) that took place in Sant'Alessio was Forza d'Agrò , today a contiguous municipality and at the time a city of primary importance. Some traces of this historical period remain in the old quarter, immediately below the promontory on which Forza d'Agrò stands.
The cessation of the threat of incursions from the sea and the development of coastal communication routes have produced a slow and inexorable migratory flow throughout the region from the mountain resorts, once the only safe refuge, to the coastal ones, more integrated into an economic system not of pure subsistence. For Sant'Alessio, this entailed a significant demographic increase associated with the growth of the urban core. On the occasion of the Second World War , the village of Sant'Alessio Siculo directly experienced the Nazi ferocity, on 14 August 1943 , some SS soldiers massacred, without any reason, the archpriest of the town Don Antonio Musumeci and the spouses Cosimo Scarcella and Letteria Malambri.
In 1948 with regional law n. 12 of 7 June, Sant'Alessio obtained municipal autonomy from Forza d'Agrò .
Boss
Sant'Alessio
The "Capo" is the only promontory to rise along the Ionian coast between Messina and Taormina . For this reason it has played, and still plays, an important role from a strategic point of view; all the armies historically present in Sicily contributed, in successive phases, to the construction of the castle on its summit.
The castle consists of two towers, one with a rectangular plan and one with a circular plan, and a boundary wall. The two towers rise on two peaks located at the end of the promontory, overlooking the sea. The circular tower on the mountain side peak, the rectangular base tower on the sea side peak.
The promontory, already known in the Greek-Sicilian era as Arghennon Akron (Argenteo Capo), until the unification of the island under the Sicilian Archontory of Dionysius I , in the fifth century BC , served as a territorial border between the Chora della polis di Messana and that of Naxos . It was then called Promontorium by the Romans , who were the first to build a fortification there. During the battle between Octavian and Sextus Pompey (36 BC), the castle would have hosted the same Sextus Pompey, the son of Gneo Pompeo Magno , who had given himself to piracy, in those years, near the Sicilian coasts, hindering Roman supplies .
The construction of the actual castle took place in the Byzantine era and was renamed with the name of a Saint of the Greek-Orthodox tradition. The castle served as a defense against Arab raids in the wars waged by Byzantium against them. With the birth of the Emirate of Sicily , the promontory was known as Ad Dargah (La Scala).
With the birth of the Kingdom of Sicily , in the twelfth century , significant structural changes were made that led the fortification to assume its present form. In the deed of donation with which Roger II of Sicily , in 1117, granted the lands of Forza d'Agrò to the Basilian monastery annexed to the Church of Santi Pietro e Paolo d'Agrò , the inscription "Scala Sancti Alexi" appears in reference to the promontory. During the Middle Ages Forza d'Agrò was a center of no secondary importance, and the territory of today's (and then almost non-existent) Sant'Alessio belonged to it.
The fortress hosted Charles V of Hapsburg (1500-1558) after the capture of Tunis in 1535. In 1608 the castle was bought, with its relative barony, by Don Francesco Romeo from Randazzo. Later it passed to the Paternò-Castello family. In 1676, during the anti-Spanish revolt of Messina , it became the food depot of the city of Messina .
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the English, in the defense operations of the Kingdom of Sicily from the attacks of the French from Calabria , restructured the fortress by building the outer walls. In 1900 the castle was bought by Giovanni Impellizzeri.
From the area in front of the castle, two underground tunnels branch off that run under it and end in two openings on the rocky walls, one Messina side, one Taormina side. Here, during the Second World War , the German troops placed two artillery batteries.
Currently the buildings that make up the fortification are closed to the public, and partly in ruins.
