| Buscemi | ||
 | ||
Coat of arms  | ||
| State | Italy | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Sicily | |
| Territory | Syracusan | |
| Altitude | 761 m a.s.l. | |
| Surface | 52.05 km² | |
| Inhabitants | 1.005 (2019) | |
| Name inhabitants | Buscemesi | |
| Prefix tel | 39 0931 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 96010 | |
| Time zone | UTC 1 | |
| Patron | Madonna del bosco (last Sunday of August) | |
Position
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| Institutional website | ||
Buscemi is a city of Sicily in the province of Syracuse.
To know
Geographical notes
The town is located on the southern slope of Monte Vignitti (788 m a.s.l.), located in the central part of the Iblei Mountains, between the relief of Contessa district and the Anapo river and is surrounded by the historical places of the ancient Akrai, of Casmene and from the Necropolis of Pantalica.
Background
The history of the country originates in the Bronze Age. The first proto-urban settlement of the place most likely dates back to the Byzantine period, on the same site where the inhabited center currently stands. The rock church of San Pietro and another rock church used in the last century as an oil mill remain from this period. During the devastating earthquake of 1693, Buscemi was completely razed to the ground making it one of the worst hit villages. With the reconstruction of the inhabited center, moved from the previous site, the contemporary Buscemi was born with examples of religious and civil Baroque architecture.
How to orient yourself
Buscemi: full screen map.How to get
By car
Buscemi is located 50 kilometers west of Syracuse, 45 north of Ragusa and 70 south of Catania. The closest municipalities to reach are Buccheri is Palazzolo Acreide which are both less than ten kilometers away.
How to get around
The city is very small and the best thing to do is to park and walk.
What see
- 1 Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mary (mother church), Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Mother Church of the country. Completed in 1769, as can be seen from the facade, it is clearly Baroque in style. Consisting of three naves separated by simple columns reminiscent of the Doric order whose capitals are instead a mixture of Ionic and Corinthian. The side aisles are filled with altars topped with well-made paintings. One of these altars contains the embalmed body of Saint Pio, coming from the Catacombs of San Callisto in Rome.
- Church of San Giacomo. Late Baroque church whose plan is elliptical with an oval atrium and rectangular apse. After the unification of Italy it was among the ecclesiastical assets acquired to the municipal state property. No longer used for religious purposes, today it is part of the municipal complex of the municipality and is therefore used as a conference room, cultural initiatives and exhibitions.
- 2 Church of Sant'Antonio da Padova, Via Principe Umberto, 109, ☎ 39 0931878009. It was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693 after having suffered the collapse of a part of the structure. It seems that the façade was to have three orders, but only the first was rebuilt. A particular example has been defined in the Sicilian Baroque panorama for the movement given to the facade. The interior, which probably follows the seventeenth-century architectural layout, houses an eighteenth-century wooden statue of the Addolorata of great plastic intensity, and some tombs of members of the Requesenz family. This church was in fact the votive church of the Requisenz family.
- 3 Church of San Sebastiano, Piazza Roma. Completely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693, it is located in the center of the town aligned with the church of San Giacomo and raised to obtain an effect of momentum. The small terrace in front is closed by a wrought iron gate guarded by two stone lions. Despite the consolidation works, the church remains closed to the public.
- 4 Sanctuary of the Madonna del Bosco, ☎ 39 0931878912. Rebuilt after the earthquake in the same place, it is the only church outside the town left after the earthquake. The church consists of only one nave and has a fresco of the Madonna del Bosco inside, which legend has it that it was miraculously found by two deaf and dumb monks. Recently the fresco has undergone various restorations, which have brought it to its original form after removing several layers added over time.
- 5 Church of the Carmine, Via Carmine, 36, ☎ 39 0931878009. Built in the 16th century together with the annexed convent of the Dominican nuns, it has a simple and incomplete facade, almost reminiscent of the Romanesque style. The interior consists of a single nave in which an important sculptural testimony of the workshop of Gagini depicting the Annunciation is preserved, consisting of two marble statues placed on two carved bases, canvases by Paolo Tanasi and an excellent canvas of San Biagio.
- Rock church of San Pietro. It represents one of the few Byzantine monuments present in eastern Sicily. Paolo Orsi explored and described it in 1899. It is located four kilometers from Buscemi in the valley called Cava di Santa Rosalia. In 1855 Vito Amico noted the presence of "many sacred images in Greek style" and an ancient image of St. Mark in addition to the one recently identified as that of Santa Sofia. Very few traces of these images remain today. The church consists of a rectangular room supported by four large pillars, carved out of the rock, of which the first two are shaped, in the upper part, in the shape of a Doric-inspired capital. The room for the celebration of religious rites is obtained on the right side, raised by two steps, with an altar and a chair also obtained from the living rock.
- Peasant Workplace Museum. Museum articulated through an ethno-anthropological path that involves the whole inhabited center, for this reason Buscemi has acquired the definition of "museum town". In addition to visiting the streets of the town, you can especially visit the typical places of the peasant life of the twentieth century, which are: the house of the farmer, the millstone, the blacksmith's shop, the farmer's house, the coppersmith's shop, the carpenter, cobbler's shop and tanning jugs. In addition, there are sections: the grain cycle, stonecutters, folk art, the didactic laboratory relating to the grain cycle, the Documentation Center of the Iblean popular life and the "Santa Lucia" water mill, present in the territory of Palazzolo Acreide.
- 6 Ruins of the Requisenz Castle, Via Generale Cantore, 10. Castle of Arab origins revisited by the Angevins and Normans, it was then rebuilt in the 16th century by the Requisenz, Counts of Buscemi. Following the disastrous earthquake of 1693 it was destroyed, and in the 18th century it was used as a convent by the minor friars of S. Francesco.
- 7 Large fountain, via S. Giovanni.
Events and parties
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Detail of the fresco found by the friars
The statue of the Madonna with baby Jesus in her arms
- Feast of the Madonna del Bosco.
May 18, patronage day, and the last Sunday of August for eight days. Feast very much felt by the villagers and not, as the Madonna is the Patroness of Buscemi since 1919. The origins of the festival date back to an ancient legend. It is said that one day two mute friars showed up to the inhabitants of the village, who barely managed to explain to the people that they needed tools to get into the woods. Helped by some inhabitants, they eventually came to a wall on which a fresco depicting the Madonna was depicted, she is seated with baby Jesus on one arm while in the other hand there is a small ball identifiable with a pomegranate. After the shocking discovery, the inhabitants proposed the construction of a sanctuary, right in the place where the fresco was. There was, however, the problem of water, necessary for the construction of the church, given the distance from the town; so the friars dug right in the vicinity of the find and from there a clear water began to flow from a source that was not there before. Later the sanctuary was built and the source channeled into a fountain that still exists today; as for the friars, nothing more was heard. Following the earthquake of 1693, every house in the town as well as the sanctuary were destroyed, but miraculously the fresco remained intact.
May 18, patronage day, and the last Sunday of August for eight days. Feast very much felt by the villagers and not, as the Madonna is the Patroness of Buscemi since 1919. The origins of the festival date back to an ancient legend. It is said that one day two mute friars showed up to the inhabitants of the village, who barely managed to explain to the people that they needed tools to get into the woods. Helped by some inhabitants, they eventually came to a wall on which a fresco depicting the Madonna was depicted, she is seated with baby Jesus on one arm while in the other hand there is a small ball identifiable with a pomegranate. After the shocking discovery, the inhabitants proposed the construction of a sanctuary, right in the place where the fresco was. There was, however, the problem of water, necessary for the construction of the church, given the distance from the town; so the friars dug right in the vicinity of the find and from there a clear water began to flow from a source that was not there before. Later the sanctuary was built and the source channeled into a fountain that still exists today; as for the friars, nothing more was heard. Following the earthquake of 1693, every house in the town as well as the sanctuary were destroyed, but miraculously the fresco remained intact.- The procession begins in the sanctuary outside the town, where porters carry the fercolo on their shoulders, demonstrating their devotion to the Madonna; led out to the sanctuary begins the procession where, in front of the fercolo, the musical band, the bearers with the banners, as well as the devotees parade. After a few kilometers from the sanctuary, you reach the entrance of the town, after passing near the ruins of the ancient eighteenth-century castle of the Requisenz family, here the patroness is greeted with twenty-one cannon shots by the citizens and the civil authorities, who accompany her along the streets of the town. Not even a hundred meters after entering the town, the bearers of the "vara" must face one of the steepest climbs of Buscemi (the climb of via Filippo Corridoni) in one go. At this point the fercolo is led to the churches (still practicable), that of the Carmine and of S. Antonio da Padua. After walking through the main streets, the most exciting moment is when the statue depicting the Madonna is led inside the Mother Church; before this, in fact, the bearers of the "vara" have to face the stairs of the Mother Church while crossing a shower of "'nzareddi", that is, some rolled paper strips thrown into the air when climbing the stairs. Masses in honor of Mary are practiced throughout the week following the feast, but above all pilgrimages from the inhabited center to the sanctuary outside the village strictly without shoes, the famous "viaggiu scausu" (lit. barefoot travel). The feast ends on the first Sunday of September, that is exactly eight days after the initial celebration (the Octave); on the evening of the same day the fercolo is brought back to the Sanctuary outside the town with a reverse route to that of departure.
- Feast of the Crucifix.
What to do
Excursions
- Path of the porcupine (CAI path 910). You leave Buscemi from the large fountain and, having passed through the Arab fortification, you reach the sanctuary of the Madonna del Bosco and continue east for about 100 m (deviation to the right uphill in a cave where a stone Madonna was carved) a little further on. turn left on a downhill path that leads to the valley floor (deviation to the right of about 1 km towards the south to visit the hermitage of Fra Giuseppe, a hermit very dear to the Buscemese, characteristic madonnas carved in the rock and a small rock settlement) from where you it reaches a cart track: turn left past a fountain and a Byzantine settlement and return to the town.
- The route is 6 km long and takes about 3 hours of walking.
- Piergiorgio Frassati path (CAI path 907). From the cemetery of Buscemi, go down a small road with a natural background (detour to visit the rock church of San Pietro) which leads to a concrete hut in the valley (ruins of five mills). From here along the river or continuing along the small road you reach the second mill: cross the river and take a dirt road which, passing next to the third mill, leads to the ford near the fourth mill. You pass on the opposite side and go up reaching a forest road that leads to a concrete road. Follow it uphill, up to a crossroads. Going straight on you reach the upper edge of the valley, after about 300 m of asphalt, turn right onto an old mule track that ends in an asphalted road that leads to Cassaro. Turning right, on the other hand, descends towards the bottom of the valley until you reach a crossroads. On the left you go up to Cassaro and on the right you reach the Anapo valley railway following which, to the right, you can return to Buscemi.
- The route is 10 km long and can be covered in about 3 hours.
