PORTA MONTALTO

Chroniclers and historians of the Sicilian Vespers War, report that one of the bloodiest clashes between the infantry of the Duke of Calabria and the defenders of the city, occurred in front of door Mazara, still existing today at the entrance of Via Benedettini. However, the nearby square has the name of another door, which took its name from the viceroy Don Luigi Moncada, Duke of Montalto. Built in 1638 in defence of the city, in the 17th century, when the ramparts of the urinary wall began to be used no longer for military use, the door of Montalto was granted to Giuseppe Carcamo, a former senator of the city, to set up a garden and expand his home.

After 1860 the bastion collapsed from the western side and was demolished together with Montalto gate between 1885 and 1888. In this way, the ancient Mazara gate was found free and isolated.