BASTION OF THE INFECTED

It is situated near Via Plebiscito, at the end of Via Torre del Vescovo and is part of the ancient city walls, built and fortified during the reign of Charles V: this structure consisted of eleven bastions and seven gates. The bastion takes its name from the plague of 1576, as it was a lazaret where the plague–stricken people could be cured or kept in quarantine.

The bastion is placed on the hill of Montevergine, site of the ancient acropolis of Catania. The area of the bastion is the same wherein Cicero locates the temple of Ceres in his “ Horationes In Verrem”. It is, however, a site of great interest, aimed to resist to any firearm attack, with its double fortified line which dates back to XIII and XVI century.

In the years between 1551 and 1556, under the authority of the Viceroy Juan de la Vega, the state-towns were ordered to strenghten their defensive walls. The military architect Antonio Ferramolino from Bergamo was in charge of the project. After his death in 1550 his work was continued by Tiburzio Spannocchi, who also designed an important city plan.

One century later, after the plague , in spite of numerous natural disasters as the 1669 eruption, the bastion kept standing, as the lava flow levelled the 12 meters difference in height between the base of the bastion and the ground. After the 1669 earthquake the city walls and the bastion changed their original functional character.

This text is edited by Zaira Abate, Federica Stancapiano e Roberta Picardi, IV E Liceo Classico "N. Spedalieri" and the reader is Maria Elena Spagnuolo.