Punta Cannone

It owes its name to the presence on the rocks, until the beginning of the twentieth century, of a large rusty and abandoned cannon that was part of the armaments of the historic Tower of the Port of Tricase, a sixteenth-century watchtower placed to defend the port and its traffic , visually connected with the Palane Tower to the south and with the Tower of Sasso to the north. In 1810, the English frigate “Leonidas” attacked the tower. The crew, landing ashore, killed the military garrison protecting the tower, recovered what was transportable and completed its destruction, mining it at the base with barrels of gunpowder and blowing it up. Only the largest calibre cannon survived but it was nailed to prevent its reuse and abandoned on the rocks. At the beginning of the twentieth century the cannon was still there, corroded by rust but gave the name to the place, after the first obstruction of the harbour.