Almadraba was operational until the 1950s. The Arabs introduced the cultivation of citrus fruits, reclaimed land, completed the aqueduct of Xibini Tower. They also built the salt flats and the wells to irrigate fields (still working), including one at the gates of Marzamemi, called in Sicilian u puzzu de quattru uocchi (the well with four eyes), which has been used for centuries, even at industrial level, by different peoples, including pirates. The city's decline began with the Normans, the Aragonese and the Angevins. In this period the fortifications of Torre Xibini and Torre Fano were built to protect the area against piratical invasions of the Turks. Modern Era Many new feudal lands were born in Sicily from 1583 to 1714. During this period, substantial change occurred in the geography of Netino, with the foundation, in the coastal strip between the traps of Marzamemi and Cape Passero and ports of Portopalo and Marza, Pachino and Portopalo. The story begins when the current Pachino, in 1734, the Starrabba of Piazza Armerina, owners of estates and Scibini Bimmisca and, as such, with the baronetcy in addition to the principles of Giardinelli, decided to reside in the territory to better care their interests and also to acquire the title of Count. To this end, the brothers Gaetano and Vincent Starrabba asked, in 1758, Charles III of Bourbon, and later, in 1760, Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies permission to found a city (licentia populandi), a decree was issued Naples on 21 July 1760 and was made enforceable on 1 December 1760. Prince Ferdinand I wanted to enact the conditions of the Royal Decree. So he invited the neighbors to populate the new Maltese country and more than thirty families accepted the invitation. The first families were Agius, Azzoppard, Arafam, Bughagiar, Bartolo, Caldies, Bonelli, Cammisuli, Borgh, Cassar Scalia, Boager, Fenech, Ferruggia, Grech, Mizzi, Meilach, Micalef, Mallia, Ongres, Saliba, a Sultan, and Xueref other. The city was one of the first areas to see fighting during the combined British and American mission occupy Sicily in the operation codenamed Operation Husky during World War II. When British and American forces landed in Sicily the civilian population, tired with the war and the Fascist regime, often welcomed them as liberators and not as conquerors. Pachino was captured by an amphibious force from the British Eighth Army under General Montgomery on the 10 July 1943, when British and Canadian