|
|
 |
|
|
| Castellammare
del Golfo rises at the feet of Monte Inici, in the
middle of the wide gulf, which extends from Capo Rama
to San Vito's cape and gets its name from the beautiful
sea town. The name derives from "Castrum ad mare",
an ancient construction built on a preexisting tower,
which became wider during the XVI century, in order
to defende the town from the frequent incursions of
the pirates. It was the commercial harbour of Segesta
- the "emporium segestanorum" of the Romans
- and experienced its first substantial widening under
the Arab domination. |
| During the
muslim period, in fact, it was renamed with the name
"AL Madarig" (that means "the scales"),
and the town was fortified and protected, until it
became one of the defensive system basis of western
Sicily. With the norman conquest and, afterwards,
with the Swabians, the Anjous and the Aragoneses,
Castellammare regains the ancient function of strategic-commercial
point for the corn export all over the reign. And
this role becomes stronger between the XV and the
XVI century, with the installation of the tunny-fishing
structure and the loader. The year 1560 is a turning
point for the city's history: Pietro de Luna, at that
time owner of Castellammare and of its lands, founded,
leaned against the castle, the first feudale village
(the original nucleus of the present town). Afterwards
the center is protected by solid walls and encircled
by a moat. Later on, between the XVIII and the XIX
century, the great demographic expansion leads the
city to a big widening until Mount Inici. |
Castellammare
is known for its inestimable environmental and landscape
patrimony. It's a territory composed by a beautiful
coast, behind which Mounts Inici and Spàragio
rise, in a spectacular natural scenery, in part covered
by forests. In front of the beautiful and wide sandy
beach that extends to the east side of the town, the
western coast appears strongly jagged.
Cliffs that fall vertically, rocks, wonderful creeks,
little coves which are accessible only from the sea,
are the frame of a sea that is limpid and teeming
with fish. Wonderful corners of landscape covered
by the rest of the original Mediterranean bush do
alternate continually: the cape, the rocks and the
large cave of "Cala Bianca", "Cala
Rossa", the Bay of Guidaloca and finally, near
the borders of the Reserve "Lo Zingaro",
Scopello with its evocative rocks, one of the most
beautiful places of the Mediterranean. |
| In the heart
of the ancient Castellammare, in the public square,
the Mother Church rises; its present structure goes
back to 1726. It has been realized in three naves
by the architect Giuseppe Mariani and was dedicated
to "S. Maria del Soccorso". It keeps some
interesting works: the XVIII century frescoes of Giuseppe
Tresca, at the vault and the walls of the chorus,
representing episodes of the Old Testament; one XVII
century holy-water font in red marble with baptisimal
font; one beautiful painting of Orazio Ferraro, the
Crucifix between Ss. Peter and Andrea (1695); and
the majolica statue of the Madonna del Soccorso (1559),
perhaps of Giovanni Maurici and Giovanni D' Antoni,
which has been attributed by someone to Luca della
Robbia's school. In a small square of Via Ponte Castello,
we find the XVI century little church of the Madonna
del Rosario, called "di l'agnuni" (that
means, of the corner), with the decorated portal,
in the tympanum, by an elegant bas-relief representing
a Madonna with the Child between Saints and Crucifix.
|
| Tradition
tells that the church, surely built up before 1432,
was erected in 1093 by the norman conquerors. The
Castle rises on the small cape next to the harbour.
Until the XIV century it was linked to the rest of
the town through a drawbridge. It has been rehashed
in various periods by the Normans and the Swabians,
it was rebuilt in the XIV century by the Aragone-ses,
who separated it from the mainland through the cut
of the isthmus. It still keeps one of the original
towers, called "of the Artillery", built
in 1586, and two double windows on the east side.
Of remarkable historical interest are two buildings
of "Cala Marina": the Costamante Baglio,
which has been for centuries the heart of the tunning-structure's
activities, and the little church of "the Annunciata",
called "Maria SS." In a document of 1590.
Of a same level of importance are, in the center of
the city, the XVI century church of "S. Maria
degli Agonizzanti", with the annexed convent
of the Crucifer Fathers (1659), which is today a cultural
center, the XV century church of the Madonna delle
Grazie (1605), in the square next to the town gardens,
which keeps in its inside an interesting slate-painting
(XVIII sec.) representing a Madonna with the Child,
with an elegant marble ancona-frame, and, in Via Francisco
Crispi, the church of S. Giuseppe, built up in 1885.
In Corso Garibaldi, we find the beautiful church of
S. Antonio da Padova, already existing in 1644, which
keeps a valuable organ of the beginnings of the XX
century, and the little church of the Purgatory built
up before the XV century, in the inside of which there
are some interesting XVI and XVII century paintings. |
| The hinterland
of Castellammare is rich of important evidences of
local history. Rests of ancient fortifications, towers
and old "bagli", interesting examples of
rural architecture of the past, a time center of all
the agricultural activities. In the area of "Ponte
Bagni", on the tableland which dominates the
rocky gorges, inside which the sources of the river
"Caldo" gush out, a time ancient center
of the Segestan Thermae, the rests of the castle of
"Calathamet" - the "castle of the baths"
- built up by the Arabs are founded on one original
elym fortification and reconstructed in swabian age.
From "Ponte Bagni" you can reach the rests
of the castle of Inici, built near an ancient sycan-elym
settlement and center, in the Middle Ages, of one
immense community of peasants and shepherds. |
| Even the
Castle of Baida, which we find in a slope on the south
of Mount Sparagio and which was the seat of an arabic
country house, probably rose near an ancient elym
settlement. It is testified by the funeral equipment
of some graves, which have been found in a near locality.
Even if partly destroyed during the earthquake of
1968, the castle, even now inhabited, kepps the four
rectangular towers and a part of the original embattled
wall. The entrance door is decorated by an arch on
which a latin registration reminds the visit of Ferdinand
III of Borbone during one of its hunting parties.
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
