The Saracen Tower

Built in 1596, the Saracen Tower watches the port of Giglio, the main port on the island. It is located next to the port, right on the left and it is clearly visible form the tourists that are landing on the island.

Ferdinando I of Tuscany wanted the construction of this stately structure in a tormented period, far from the year 1799 that marked the decisive abandonment of its coasts from the Turkish and Tunisian pirates. The aim of the construction was to demonstrate to the fishermen's families that the island was well protected, hoping to convince them to come back. The frequent raids of the Saracens had actually pushed many families to abandon their houses in search of a more stable and safer life on the Maremma coast.
The history of Giglio is closely linked to that of the many attackers that followed one another in the centuries meaning to plunder it. An emblematic figure engraved on the historical memory of the inhabitants of Giglio is Kair ad-Din, said Barbarossa, who managed to invade Giglio in 1544 and, beside taking a very substantial plunder, deported seven hundred people as slaves. In the history of Giglio Porto, ancient settlement built during the Roman times, this was doubtlessly the most awful defeat.
The Saracen tower is not the only one to watch over the short coast of Giglio. The bay of Campese is garrisoned by the tower that has the same name of the end of the 17^th century. It was first conceived isolated on the rocks, almost inaccessible by land, however it is now possible to get there by crossing a bridge that has been recently built. The tower of Campese was the impregnable bulwark that allowed the population of Giglio to defeat, on November 18^th 1799, the Tunisian pirates that attacked their coast once for all.
The Tower of Lazzaretto was built in 1622, made by Ferdinando II to bound the area used as emergency hospital during epidemics, which represented an as much big threat as the pirates for the people on the island. It was destroyed and rebuilt many times until 1842, when it was rebuilt with the present structure. Today it is a private residence. The island has also an old lighthouse, built in 1865, fallen into disuse very soon because of the clouds that gathered in that area that reduced the visibility of the passing ships.