Like all structures of this kind, the purpose of Torre San Felice was to signal incursions in advance. A mounted man was always stationed at the tower, and in the event of an attack, he would gallop to the nearest military outpost in Vièste. However, there were two sentinels: the task of the second man, once the first one had departed, was to signal the danger to the other towers. An exceptional document from 1594, written by a technician sent by the Viceroy, one Carlo Gambacorta, and now held at the National Library of Paris, provides a meticulous description of the tower, complete with technical drawings and perspective representations of the bay. Consulting these documents gives you the sensation of living on the cusp of a technological revolution. Gambacòrta explains, speaking in the third person about himself, "which he did with a new invention to depict the places I call perspective."

From Gambacorta, in this report, one also expects a military assessment, which indeed exists and is very positive: "Well placed, well-constructed, overlooking two large bays on either side."

Before the construction of the tower, in 1554, Vièste had been targeted and besieged. We will talk about it in the next listening point.