Portopalo
Portopalo is a small town located about 10km from Marzamemi. It was founded in the last three decades of the 18th century by Don Gaetano Deodato Moncada who, at his own expense, commissioned the building of about a hundred homes within the existing tonnara.
Portopalo is Sicily’s most southern local council and is mainly an agricultural and marine centre which is bathed by both the Ionian and the Mediterranean Seas.
On the Ionian side there once stood a small port that has since been destroyed. To the East, on the other hand, on the island of Capo Passero there is still the Spanish fort that was
commissioned by Marcantonio Colonna, the Viceroy for Sicily,
The appealing Tafuri Castle, which today has been converted into a hotel, was built by the Marquis Bruno di Belmonte in the first half of the 20th century. Fascinated by the panorama, the Marquis wanted to construct a majestic building worthy of the territory’s natural wonders. The Liberty style palace was constructed solely with the stone quarried at Isola delle Correnti, a small island a few kilometres from Portopalo.