The Appiani’s Tower of Marciana Marina is ocated at the small harbor of the seaside resort of Elba Island. The tower was already known in the 16th century as a tower of Novalja (Novalja is the toponym of the coastal plain near the building, which derives from the latin novalia, i.e. cultivated fields to fallow).
A document dating back to the sixteenth century of the Historical Archive of Marciana describes the port taxation concerning the tower: “Item (h)year ruled et ordered for the sopradetti statutarii that accio you can maintain the tower to Novalja provided and proveduta dust et other things that are necessary, that the proveditori, which will be elected and appointed over the care and government of said tower, possino and differs to pay to all persons below note this sum, i.e. li masters of any boat or lute of Marciana, although the boats were people forastiere provided by said marcianesi are guided, are kept et required each time that will be returned from the journey before that faccino account with them their marinari, draw all The sum delli denier that averanno earned denier dua per lira and those giving alli said proveditori and any controfacessi falls in the penalty of lire seven, d’apply for li three quarters to said tower et a quarter to the Commissioner that the levy, and no less said masters are obliged to give the sum sopradetta.”
The architectural structure continued to carry out in the course of the centuries the ones that had its original function of sighting and defense along the stretch of coastline north of the island. With the final political fall of the Principality of Piombino occurred in 1815, the defensive structure was gradually abandoned by the military functions and sold to a private, becoming following also the residence of the writer Raffaello Brignetti. Today the tower, after a long struggle to claim on the part of citizens of Marciana Marina, is returned to the property of the state property.
The Tower of the Appiani, located at the western end of the port near the point of engagement of the outer wharf to the mainland, it has a circular plan resting on a base with a shoe having the shape of a truncated cone, divided from the upper part of the tower by a continuous bead, which stops at the point of engagement of the outdoor ramp of stairs. The latter leads to the mezzanine floor, where you will find the entrance to the defensive structure, protected from above by a chute with three orders scores by blind arches resting on mensolette projecting, which protrudes from the top of the tower where you will find a terrace originally used for the functions of the sighting. In some points of the masonry structure open slots in the past used for functions of active defense.