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Castellammare del Golfo
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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. |
| 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.
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