Porto Empedocle is a town in Italy on the coast of the Strait of Sicily, administratively part of the province of Agrigento. The primary industries of Porto Empedocle are agriculture, fishing, ironworking, pharmaceuticals and rock salt refining. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor ordered a tower built to protect the territory's reserves of harvested grain in the fifteenth century. The tower was later converted to a prison and is now a social and cultural center. Trade increased in the area after the completion of the harbor wall in 1763. The comune became autonomous in 1853, and assumed the name of Molo di Girgenti. The town it took its present name in 1863. It is named after the Agrigentine philosopher Empedocles. In 2003, the town has changed its official denomination to Porto Empedocle Vigata, after the name of the fictional town where the popular novels by Andrea Camilleri, famous Italian writer and native of Porto Empedocle, about detective Inspector Montalbano are placed.