The Torre Ciana is located at the southern end of Monte Argentario, on the slopes of a promontory located a few kilometers west of the nearby Torre Avvoltore, reachable through the coastal scenic road.
The coastal defensive structure was built by the Sienese during the fifteenth century, probably designed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, to strengthen the defensive system along the southern coastal section of the territory of the Republic of Siena. The tower was in fact built on a promontory with sighting functions and active and passive defense along the southern coastal stretch of the Argentario.
In the second half of the sixteenth century, the tower became one of the points of reference for the defensive system of the State of the Presidios; in this period the structure was further strengthened by the Spaniards in order to improve its functionality.
The tower suffered serious damage as a result of a violent pirate raid that occurred just before the mid-eighteenth century, more precisely in 1740. After resuming its functions, it became a temporary Napoleonic garrison at the beginning of the nineteenth century, then passed into the territory administered by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Definitively abandoned after the unification of Italy, in 1877 it was sold to private individuals.
The Cian Tower looks like an architectural structure with a circular plan, arranged on three levels, with a mighty base with a cordoned shoe on which the upper part of the turriform building is supported.
The external walls are presented with some stretches covered in stone and others with whitewashed plaster; in some places there are loopholes and small windows from which the active defense functions were carried out, if necessary.
The access door is located on the mezzanine floor, above the cordon of the shoe base, but remained isolated following the disappearance of the original flight of external stairs that led to it; the upper part, devoid of crowning, shows signs of deterioration and abandonment of the last century, although the remains of protruding corbels that made up the support for the original summit crown are still visible.
The tower is surrounded by the remains of the walls that surrounded the fortress erected by the Spaniards in the second half of the sixteenth century, from which it is possible to identify the trapezoidal plan that characterized it, leaning against the outer side of the tower facing the ground.
