Torre Paola, Circeo National Park

Torre Paola is a coastal defensive tower located on the Circeo Promontory bordering the long beach of Sabaudia. It was erected between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It presents a typically Martinian architecture and technical-oxidional devices; towers whose architecture is very similar to the devices adopted for the construction of the tower called "Torre Paola" often appear in the drawings of Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

Together with Torre Fico, it was the first to be built, placed at a strategic point to guard the mouth of the Lake Paola effluent canal, becoming part of a defensive system of six towers.

Already during its construction it suffered the first attack by Saracens so much so that, to obviate future raids from the cliff, the original layout was modified, giving it the peculiar tortoise structure with mountain-side defensive structure.

In 1563 at the behest of Pope Pius IV it was further updated by the lords of Sermoneta and San Felice Circeo to counter the constant incursions of Saracen pirates, completing a defensive system that included, toward Rome, Torre Astura, Tor Caldara and Tor San Lorenzo.

In 1604, from the tower, it was possible to cannonade and drive some Turkish ships to escape. In 1773, as reported in the state archives, there were 1 10-gun with 15 balls, 15 cases of machine-gun and 15 of powder in Torre Paola; 1 3/4-gun with 15 balls, 15 case of machine-gun and 70 of powder; 1 1-gun with 15 balls, 15 cases of machine-gun and 7 of powder.

In 1809, garrison soldiers opposed British ships with fire, and there were numerous clashes and vicissitudes involving the tower.

Recently, the municipal council of San Felice Circeo decided to initiate the procedure to expropriate the tower, which is now private property and is currently in a serious state of neglect and abandonment, in order to build a Coastal Towers Museum inside it that tells the story and myth of Circeo and the Pontine territory.