Torre Cuba

On Sicily’s coast, the Torre Cuba is a tower that began life as something else entirely. It rises on the foundations of a Byzantine church, a semi-subterranean structure built of squared calcarenite blocks. That earlier church has a central sail vault and three apsidal basins, its masonry carefully coursed except at the top, where smaller, irregular stone takes over. The sail vault itself is made entirely of this small rubble, rising from the pendentives of the circular base to the keystone. Four arches, paired in two sets and cut from squared calcarenite, complete the church and define the space of the narthex.

Above this, the tower is a different affair: rough stone in continuous masonry, set on a battered base of squared limestone blocks, topped with a plastered dome and a flat terrace roof. One structure stands on another, each telling a different story of building, reuse, and the long, layered history of this place.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.