Milazzo

Milazzo: Norman castle

Milazzo, Latin Mylae, town, northern Sicily, Italy, on the low isthmus of a peninsula 3 miles (5 km) long, on the west side of the Golfo (gulf) di Milazzo, west of Messina. The town was founded in 716 bc by colonists from Zankle (Messina). It was taken by the Athenians in 426 bc and by the Syracusan tyrant Agathocles in 315 bc. The consul Gaius Duilius won the first Roman naval victory over the Carthaginians in the bay in 260 bc, and in 1860 the Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi defeated the Bourbon forces of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies outside Milazzo. The town suffered from Allied bombing in World War II. The old town on a hill above is partly surrounded by Spanish walls from the 16th century and contains a 13th-century Norman castle.

The transit port for the Eolie Islands, Milazzo is a tourist centre and exports early fruit, wine, and olive oil. It has a growing chemical industry and an oil refinery. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 32,586.