Porta Catania, Taormina

The walk along Corso Umberto I ends at the medieval wall, where the western entrance to the old town, Porta Catania, is located. As you can easily guess, the road leading to the capital of Sicily begins behind them. The city had three systems of defensive walls, which were constantly rebuilt and strengthened, reaching maximum perfection during the reign of the Aragonese dynasty, around 1440. Now this is recalled by a bas-relief with the coat of arms of Aragon over the arch of the gate on the outside of the wall. The road through Porta Catania leads to the central part of the island, so this direction was the most dangerous, the height of the wall here reaches 10 meters. In the Norman period, people's meetings were held on the square in front of the gate, which were announced by a bell suspended under the arch of the gate. Therefore, the gate has a second name Porta del Tocco, here tocco has the meaning of "the stroke of the bell".

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