The cyclopean walls of Cefalù: an ancient open-air museum

Among the megalithic walls dating back to the fifth century BC, the city of Cefalù is kept, which due to its strategic position, with access to the sea, has often been targeted by pirate ships and looters. Today, the walls are still visible: they cover the entire coast, from the lower part of the tower in the square, and then cover the entire fortress and merge on some natural fissures.

History

When the Arabs arrived in the eleventh century, they were struck by this defensive stratagem adopted, so that they defined it a real fortress built on the rocks. Cefalù, in this way, became an impregnable fort, and it was more difficult for the successive dominations to settle in this town that flourished more and more. On the defensive walls were placed four gates of access to the city, the only ones, constantly controlled and in privileged positions. Three of these overlooked the sea, while one was positioned inland.

The first gate, which today corresponds to Corso Re Ruggero, entered the stalls. A section of walls ended in the Gate of Ossuna, from where the alternation between megalithic construction and cliff in forming the defensive walls began. Between the gate of Ossuna and the next gate, that of Pescara or gate of the viceroy, were placed about 200 meters of fortifications that connected the second to the third.

Finally, the fourth gate, the gate of the Giudecca, was still in existence in the seventeenth century, and was welded directly with the Rocca di Cefalù. Visiting the megalithic walls of the city of Cefalù is an unmissable stop in the itinerary that leads to the discovery of this magical open-air museum.