The Cabrera Tower is a tower built to protect the Pozzallo Loading Dock from pirates (i.e., a complex of warehouses on the coast complete with piers and slipways for loading cargo onto sailing ships).
The Tower stands, splendid and magnificent, on the cliffs of the Pozzallo coast. It was built in the early 15th century by order of the Count of Modica, Bernat Cabrera, a member of one of the most illustrious Catalan families, the Viscounts Cabrera and Bas and Counts of Osona, who supported and financed the Spanish rulers in the reconquest of Sicily and in return received the County of Modica confiscated from the rebels of the Chiaramonte family.
The square-plan building, approximately 20 meters long and 28 meters high from street level, consists of three floors plus a terrace, which currently lacks battlements. On the outside, it retains the 16th-century bastion, which juts out into the sea with an imposing terrace, equipped with gun ports for maneuvering artillery pieces, required by Sicily's defense system in the Mediterranean, a sea of raids and conflicts. Recent restorations have shown that it was not a defense tower but a "palacium" that combined the function of a noble residence with that of a control point for grain and goods loaded from the loader from all over eastern Sicily.
Soldiers and artillerymen served inside the tower, while the knights were responsible for guarding the coast. Cannons of various calibers were placed on the terraces. The tower was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1693. It was rebuilt with some modifications to the original design, thus maintaining it to this day, awarded the designation of "National Monument."