Lazaretto

Born as a defense and at the same time as the “fifth” architectural dock of Roman Period and in particular of the dock, the inner and protected the harbor. Ends with a cone-shaped tower built to protect the mouth of the west with its counterpart on the opposite pier (the pier glass) to protect the mouth of the east, and the tower was transformed into a fortress by Popes while maintaining its function.

The pier was crossed by tunnels that constituted a system of exchange of water act to prevent the burial of the dock, clear example of the ability of the Romans ingegnieristica; system that still performs its function remain the only one of its kind in the world.

The papal interventions on the pier back to the first decades of the ’600 under Pope Urban VIII, but was completed only in December 1755 by Pope Benedict XIV who made the last part of those who were to be the warehouses, with the central gabled adorned with a large plaque with scu1ture and papal coat of arms.

In 1656 a plague epidemic spread and the fort was converted into a hospital for infectious and remained so until 1800. To isolate the hospital is also thought to dig a canal that would separate from the pier.

Series of buildings built in different eras few traces remain on the platform of which the most obvious is certainly the tower which is in poor condition.