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A fortitude to protect the Saint
The Sanctuary leans out sull' homonym square of the historical center, undisputed symbol of San Vito Lo Capo, is surely the most interesting monument of the country.
The legend narrates that around the first chapel devoted martyr to the saint has been, in the following centuries, built the church - fortitude to protect her from the attacks of the pirates barbareschi and to entertain in safety the believers come from far.
The small suburb of San Vito slowly grew around the fortitude and many inhabitants they began to entertain to payment the travellers.After different building interventions, the fortitude that encircled the church assumed its actual dimensions: 104 meters base, 16 of height, boundaries of the thickness from a maximum of two meters and a half to a minimum of winds centimeters.
And very interesting to notice as this building is rich of very different architectural elements among them. In it they coexist in fact the loopholes, the rose window of the façade and the balconies, not to speak of the tower of sighting and the niches votive.
Elements of civil construction, soldier and religious melt in an only building of rare harmony.Entering inside the Sanctuary the ancient apse can be admired, where a splendid statue is found in representing marble the Saint stripling, going up again at the end of the 1.500 and attributed to the famous sculptor Gagini; very valuable also the beautiful altar of the chapel restored around 1780 with marbles of the zone.
The outside of the Sanctuary has been restored to the beginning of the 1998.
The Tower, is more recent instead, having been built around the 1.600, that is immediately in the other towers of watch that are found along the coast, you builds on project of the Florentine architect Camilliani, entrusted by the viceroy Colonna to plan the coastal defenses of the island against the pirates.