Castiglione di Sicilia

Castiglione di Sicilia is particularly interesting: it stands on a rocky spur overlooking the valley of the Alcantara. It was founded in 496 BC by the exiles of Naxos that had been destroyed by the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse; it was a royal city during the Norman and Swabian period and then it became a fief of Roger of Lauria in 1283. The beautiful old town is built around Piazza Lauria, where there is the town hall; from there a staircase leads to the mother church of St. Peter, which collects three major paintings and a wooden crucifix of the sixteenth century. The ancient apse (1105) is very interesting and it features hanging arches which are the remains of the original Norman church (a bell tower was erected there in 1709). Next to it there is another interesting site, the Church of the Benedictines, with the oval painting of the Madonna and the Child by Vito d’ Anna, set in the main altar. The Piano di Sant’Antonio is a small square surrounded by elegant buildings and the eighteenth-century church dedicated to St. Anthony, with marble inlays of the 18th century and valuable paintings. The Via E. Pantano offers the unique landscape of the Alcantara Valley and leads to the Church of the Chain, dating back to the eighteenth century; in the main altar it features a marble statue of the Madonna made in 1543 (Gagini school). On the highest point of the village there is Castel Leone, the rest of the ancient fortifications, with two ogival mullioned windows on the eastern side.