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The archeological area of ancient Milazzo

Dominated from above by the Norman-Swabian Castle, itself protected by artillery emplacements in the late 15th century Aragonese towers, the fortified citadel extended up to the powerful Spanish walls built in 1529. The citadel enclosed a tight network of public and private buildings, both civil and religious, such as the cathedral and the Benedectine Monastery, both of which survived the destructions that razed the numerous private buildings and even the municipal building, that in the early 19^th century stood opposite the cathedral, to the ground.

The large area within the Aragonese and Spanish walls, including the Cathedral and the Benedectine Monastery, was, until the turn of the XVIIIth century, densely inhabited, as is evident from archive documents and contemporary planimetries as well as from recent archeological excavations (2008/09). These excavations brought to light remains of the lower parts of numerous private buildings, mostly underground cisterns, used to collect rain water, and the cobbled floors of some courtyards. A ground floor room in one of these buildings (building n. 11) preserves the remains of a floor made of hexagonal tiles. The remains of some cobbled roads have also been discovered: the public roads in the fortified citadel were generally very narrow, little more than alleyways that separated the buildings that were grouped into quarters, all with their own names (Annunziata, Matrice and Salvatore, relating to the nearby churches, Piazza, that is the large area between the Cathedral and the town hall, Sotto le mura del Regio Castello etc. etc).

Despite the numerous measures taken by the local authorities to encourage citizens to live within the walls of the fortified citadel, the people of Milazzo preferred to move to the plain, abandoning the buildings that from the first half of the 18th century began to collapse and disappear definitively.

Planimetry showing the location of the 11 buildings brought to light during the excavations of 2008/09 (on the map these buildings are indicated with the Italian term “edificio”) and of the cisterns used for the collection of rain water (in Italian “cisterna”). The public road, discovered using the excavations, is visible between buildings 4 and 5. The road is cobbled as is the courtyard between buildings 1 and 2.

The position of the 11 buildings is shown in Arabic numerals on this planimetry , dated 1719 and preserved in the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna.

This planimetry, dating to c1756 and preserved in the State Archives in Naples, gives evidence of the progressive abandonment and the consequent demolition of many buildings.

Building 2

The cobbled floor of the courtyard of buildings 1 and 2

A pan shot of the excavations in 2009

The remains of the floor with hexagonal tiles in building 11

The cobbled road next to building 5

Discoveries in the archeological area

Numerous objects relating to everyday life have been found in the vast archeological area, now open to visitors, between the ancient cathedral and the exterior Spanish wall (built in the first half of the 16th century) of the fortified citadel.

Cleaning of the many cisterns that came to light during the excavations in 2008/09 revealed a number of small amphoras used for carrying and containing water (XVII and XVIII centuries), recovered in cisterns 10 and 11. Several majolica plates, dating back to the XVIII century, the majority of which are white with a blue floral motif, were found in cistern 1. In building 2, made up of three rooms – one of which has a stone staircase and an adjacent courtyard – terracotta pipes, some plates, one of which must have belonged to a member of the clergy, an earring, an oil lamp and a thimble were discovered.

Excavations revealed, among other artifacts, various dishes and some Aragonese coins dating back to the first half of the XVth century.