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>> Castellammare del Golfo |
 Castellammare
del Golfo Scopello
Riserva
dello Zingaro
Erice
Segesta
San Vito Lo Capo |
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| Castellammare
del Golfo: | | Come
Raggiungerla : da Alcamo Marina percorrerela SS 187 fino al bivio per Castellammare
del Golfo km 4,5, il tempo di percorrenza è di 10 minuti circa |
| Sito Ufficiale
: www.castellammaredelgolfo.org |
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| 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. | | La tradizione
vuole che la chiesa, costruita sicuramente prima del 1432, sia stata edificata
nel 1093 dagli stessi conquistatori Normanni. Il Castello si eleva sul piccolo
promontorio a fianco del porto. Fino al XIV secolo era collegato al resto dell'abitato
per mezzo di un ponte levatoio. Rimaneggiato in diversi periodi dai Normanni e
dagli Svevi, fu riedificato nel '300 dagli Aragonesi che lo separarono dalla terraferma
con il taglio dell'istmo. Conserva ancora una delle torri originarie, detta "dell'Artiglieria",
costruita nel 1586, e due bifore tompognate sul lato est. Di notevole interesse
storico sono due edifici di Cala Marina: il Baglio Costamante, per secoli fulcro
delle attività della tonnara, e la chiesetta di Maria SS. Annunziata, citata
in un documento del 1590. | | 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. | | il
testo è stato redatto da Giuseppe Calandrino | | |
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