Piazza Armerina

The cultural heritage of the municipality of Piazza Armerina, and of the province of Enna is particularly rich and varied.
The town dates back to the medieval time; the first settlement was found at the Mount Mira where the city started to spread eastward toward the “Castellina” and in the fourteenth century the “village” was enclosed by walls.
The geographer and botanist Idrisi wrote that in 1140 AC Piazza Armerina was not yet a city, but a small fortress that controlled a wide territory. William I destroyed the first settlement on the Mount Mira that was later rebuilt in the twelfth century.
The city started to grow from the beginning of the fourteenth century within the walls, first toward the northeast with the Castellina and Soccorso villages, then toward the south in the villages of Santa Maria dell’Itria and Canali, finally toward east and south- est in Altacura and Casalotto villages.
From the point of the urban morphology in Piazza Armerina there are different kinds of buildings which testify different urban systems over time, you can therefore distinguish the peculiar features of the city stratified over the centuries within the walls, from the remaining contemporary settlement characterized by a messy growth of irregular groups of houses, shops and business in the whole territory.