Geraci Siculo - Geraci Siculo

Geraci Siculo is a city of Sicily.

To know

Geraci Siculo is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

Geographical notes

The municipal territory of Geraci is part of the Madonie Park.

Background

The territory of Geraci Siculo was inhabited since prehistoric times, as evidenced by the finds found in the neighboring countryside. Today these objects are exhibited in the Minà Palumbo Museum in Castelbuono and in the Archaeological Museum of Palermo.

The Greek colonization of the island affected the Geracese territory only shortly after 550 BC, it was they who gave the settlement the name Jerax, Ιέραξ in Greek, meaning vulture, since the Rocca was inhabited by these predators. In 241 BC Geraci was an important Roman settlement. The Madonie in fact they became part of the cultural sphere of the Greco-Roman and then Byzantine world.

The area of ​​Geraci continued to be populated even during the early medieval age, as evidenced by the discovery of some fragments dating back to the period of agricultural colonization of the Madonite countryside. Certain information concerning Geraci specifically dates back to 840 AD, the date of the Saracen conquest. During the domination the Castle, which had been there before, was enlarged and fortified. After the division of Sicily, by the Muslims, into three provinces (Val Demone, Val di Noto and Val di Mazzara), the Madonie, therefore also Geraci, were part of the first and, unlike the other valleys, they managed to maintain the their faith, living peacefully with the Islamic element. After the Saracen domination, Geraci became the most important inland town, given its strategic position.

With the Norman conquest (1062-1064), the village, following the battle of Cerami, was granted as a fief by Roger I to his nephew Riccardo Serlo II of Altavilla.

In the Swabian era, the county entered the orbit of the Ventimiglia family: in 1258, Enrico II Ventimiglia, marrying the countess Isabella, of Norman origin and member of the royal house of Frederick II, was created Count of Geraci. The Ventimiglias ruled making it the capital of the county, albeit with alternating events, until the abolition of feudalism. During the reign of Conrad II, the county expanded its borders, including Collesano, Petralia Soprana is Sottana, then Scratchers is Isnello; Count Enrico also obtained important assets and palaces in the episcopal city of Cefalù.

In 1270, the Angevins divided and conceded the territories of the county to the Provençal invaders. During the war of the Vespers, however, Henry II and his son Aldoino led the Swabian-Aragonese party in the rebellion against Charles I of Anjou, regaining control of the county. Gradually, the county of Geraci became a real "state within the state", managing to administer justice and mint its own coins.

In 1419, the capital of the "state of the Madonie" was transferred from Geraci to Castelbuono, at the behest of Count Giovanni I Ventimiglia. He, a valiant military commander, was also Governor General and Regent of the Kingdom of Naples and, between 1430 and 1432, Viceroy of Sicily; in 1444, he also became Viceroy of the Duchy of Athens. Furthermore, in 1430, Alfonso V of Aragon granted the county the hereditary right of full criminal jurisdiction. In February-March 1436, the County of Geraci becomes a Marquisate, placing the lord of Geraci in first place - by rank - in the Sicilian Parliament.

In the years 1595 and 1606 the Marquis of Geraci and Prince of Castelbuono was appointed President of the Kingdom. From that moment Castelbuono assumed the central functions, both from an administrative and military point of view. In the years 1736-37 Prince John VI was appointed by King Charles "President of the Grand Council of Sicily" defending the island from the profiteers. In 1813 Prince Giuseppe Ventimiglia di Belmonte was arrested in Palermo for defending the constitution and freedom of the Kingdom of Sicily. Released by the British, he suffered an attempted poisoning in prison, Foreign Minister for the Kingdom of Sicily was sent to the congress of Vienna 1814 to defend the autonomy of the island, but it seems he was assassinated in Paris while he was preparing the papers 15 days before the opening of the congress in which Sicily without any defense fell back into the hands of the Bourbons. In the following years Geraci lived a political and administrative life equal to that of many other countries of the Sicilian hinterland. However, the Ventimiglia family, the last remaining branch, that of the Ventimiglia di Monteforte continue to this day to take an interest in the fate of the County.

How to orient yourself

The city develops on a mountain whose center is Piazza del Popolo where the main church is located. From here starts the Via Roma that reaches the castle located south of the town.

How to get

By car

Highway Messina-Palermo exit Castelbuono. Then .

Highway Catania-Palermo exit Petralia Sottana. Then direction Petralia Sottana. Merge into the then in .

From Cefalù take the , direction Castelbuono.

From Messina along the , crossroads San Mauro, Borrello basso, Borrello Alto, crossroads Calabrò, crossroads Comunello, Gangi, Geraci Siculo junction.

By bus

The only existing link is with SAIS bus line for Palermo 2 hours and 40 minutes. Ticket € 9.60 or Catania is Cefalù.

How to get around

By car

The car must be left as soon as possible because the streets in the center are quite small and easily become a trap. The short distances allow for a walk.

What see

Religious buildings

• 37.85736414.154671 mother church (Church of Santa Maria Maggiore), Piazza del Popolo. The church was consecrated on August 16, 1495, but its construction dates back more than a century earlier, ie towards the middle of the fourteenth century. The façade, which overlooks the main square of the town, is composed of the ogival stone portal, dating back to the original construction, a decorative pointed arch, a mullioned window, a rose window and a bell tower, added later. . The side chapels remain in Baroque style.

Among the many works of art contained inside the church, the most valuable are: the stoup in white marble from the 16th century, with the figure of the Madonna and Child carved in the center; the marble statues of the Madonna della Neve, on whose octagonal base stands out among the various sculpted representations the coat of arms of the Ventimiglia family, and of the Madonna delle Mercede made by the Gagini workshop; the baptismal font in richly carved alabaster marble, on which stands the representation of the baptism of Christ, also coming from the Gagini workshop; the paintings representing Purgatory and the Nativity respectively attributed to the Madonite artists Lo Zoppo di Ganci and De Galbo.  

• 37.85347614.1532772 Church of Sant'Anna (Palatine Chapel). It is believed to be the palatine chapel of the Ventimiglia family which would link it to the historical-cultural events of the lord of Geraci. It was built or rebuilt within the walls of the Castle by Francesco I Ventimiglia. The year of construction of the church has not been precisely defined as it is handed down that the relic of Sant'Anna was already kept and venerated in the ancient castle since 1242. Of the original elements of the church, the columns in stone with capitals remain. , in groups of three, they rest on the side walls. On the altar there is the canvas depicting the Nativity of Mary attributed to Giuseppe Salerno, known as Lo Zoppo di Ganci, and in the left wall the stoup in carved stone. In this church every year two religious events take place: on July 26 the feast of Sant'Anna and on September 8 the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary Child.  

• 37.85639614.153173 Church of Santo Stefano (Auditorium). Today it serves as an Auditorium, has an irregular Greek cross structure dating back to the early seventeenth century and has a characteristic bell tower with polychrome ashlars. Among the works of art it contains, the polychrome and gilded wooden sculpture of Saint Stephen from the 16th century is interesting.  

• 37.85407714.1538044 Church of San Giacomo (near the Castle). The church of San Giacomo is made up of a central nave and two large side chapels. During the restoration work in 1984 various superimpositions were found and a Byzantine fresco from the 14th century was found in a pillar depicting a blessing Saint. Among the works of art housed, there are: an eighteenth-century wooden statue, depicting St. James, attributed to Filippo Quattrocchi, and the paintings depicting the Immaculate Conception portrayed between Saints Giacomo and Chiara - work of 1657 by Giuseppe Tomasi - and the Conversion of Saint Paul, attributed to the Madonite painter De Galbo; a fourteenth-century wooden crucifix, a rare example of a crucifix linked to the Nordic current of painful Gothic in Sicily. 
• Church of Santi Cosma e Damiano. To the north-west of the territory, in the area called San Cusimano, in a flat oasis, there is a small chapel dedicated to Saints Cosma and Damiano. The church is very old, as the Gothic portal denotes. The only work in the chapel was a canvas by the painter De Galbo representing the two saints which unfortunately was stolen in 1983. 

• 37.85750114.1544155 Church of the College of Mary, Piazza del Popolo. The College was built in 1738; the church connected to it has a nave, adorned with gold rocaille stuccoes. The marble façade overlooking Piazza del Popolo dates back to the 18th century. Among the works of art it contains, there is the canvas depicting the Madonna del Rosario of the eighteenth century, the polychrome wooden sculpture of San Michele dating back to the late seventeenth century, another canvas depicting the Nativity dated 1651 and a painted cross dating back to 17th century, linked to the rich Madonite production of previous centuries. Furthermore, inside the college there is a private collection of wax babies with cradles belonging to the nuns; some are from the 18th century adorned with corals and lace of local craftsmanship. 
• Church of San Rocco. This church dates back to the 14th century and is one of the oldest in the country; it is adjacent to Porta Baciamano and has a nave. Among the works of art it contains, there is the wooden sculpture depicting San Rocco, the work of a Sicilian master of the sixteenth century, and the oval canvas depicting the Madonna della Catena of the eighteenth century. 
• Church of San Francesco. Composed of a single nave, it contains the canvas depicting the Madonna del Lume, work of 1757, the wooden statues depicting St. Anthony of Padua and St. Francis, the canvas depicting the Transit of the Patriarch St. Joseph and the wooden sculpture of the Madonna del Salvatore from 17th century. 
• Santa Caterina Monastery. The origins of this Benedictine monastery of Cassinesi are connected to a congregation of retired women who had their home at the first mother church in the country dedicated to San Giuliano. In the monastery there are vestments embroidered in gold and silver, some of which date back to the 18th century, and some interesting deeds and documents. Among the works it includes, it is worth mentioning the architectural reliquary of San Giuliano which bears the figures of Saint Catherine and the Virgin at the base and which culminates with the risen Christ. It is a Gothic work dating back to the sixteenth century and attributed to the Palermo silversmith mastery. To remember there is also the marble sculpture representing Santa Caterina, by Giuliano Di Marino from Palermo, and the organ dating back to 1765, attributed to Giacomo Andronico of Palermo. 

• 37.85923614.1546756 Church of San Giuliano, S. Giuliano square. Attached to the Benedictine monastery, it has a single nave. It already existed before 1495, the year in which it ceased to be a parish. Dating back to 1818 is the high altar worked in wood by Gaetano Durante from Palermo. Among the works of art that the church contains, the most characteristic is the wooden sculpture of San Lorenzo, a work dating back to the 17th century. The lower grille of the choir is a valuable work of Sicilian masters from around 1652, the upper part must have been built in the 18th century and the wrought iron choir loft at the end of the 18th century. 
• Church of Santa Maria della Cava. The chapel is located in "Cozzo dell'Annunziata" in a flat area once surrounded by centuries-old oaks, now only downy oaks and perastro or wild pear trees and Mediterranean scrub. On one side, at its feet runs the "Vallone dell'Annunziata or Vallone dell'eremita". In the distance you can see the steep path called the "Annunziata ladder" which winds for a few hundred meters on the side of a cliff overlooking the valley of the same name. The whole is located inside the "Bosco Cava". The construction dates back to the fourteenth century, at the time of Francesco I Ventimiglia, and there you can still see finds of great architectural, sculptural and pictorial value such as the pointed door, the rose window, both decorated in relief, the internal pointed arch mounted with linear block stones, windows in Romanesque style, the remains of Byzantine frescoes, one of which depicts the bust of a saint. In the small church the canvas of the Annunciation was kept, now kept in the mother church, which according to tradition, as soon as it was brought to the village in procession, put an end to the cholera that raged in the village at that time, claiming many victims. 
• Church of Santa Maria La Porta. The church, built in 1496, takes the name of Santa Maria La Porta because it is located in correspondence with one of the doors that closed Geraci at the time of the Ventimiglia family. It has a single nave and a Latin cross; it is assumed that it has incorporated a small chapel that already exists. The white marble portal, dated 1496 and attributed to Giovannello Gagini and Andrea Mancino, presents on the architrave three round medallions in which the annunciation and the eternal father are represented (in the central one). On the architrave there are winged cherubs surmounted by a Madonna and child surrounded by angels. A cross surmounts the portal, flanked by two carved columns at the base of which the creation of Adam and Eve and original sin are represented. The ceiling is adorned with nineteenth-century frescoes depicting four scenes from the Old Testament and on the architrave of a window leading to the bell tower, thanks to the restorations, a finely carved Christ taken down from the cross was discovered. Among the works of art of the church there is the polychrome marble polyptych of the main altar, dating back to the 16th century and attributed to the Gagini workshop, the sculpture depicting the Madonna della Porta with the child of 1475 attributed to Domenico Gagini and the wooden crucifix polychrome of the seventeenth generally attributed to the school of Fra Umile Pintorno. Under the altar of the latter, a fresco depicting the Deposition of Jesus from the 18th century was found. In the church there are numerous canvases, dating back to the 17th-17th centuries, and a fresco depicting the Madonna enthroned with the Child from the 15th century. 

• 37.86217114.1554087 Church of San Bartolomeo (former convent of the Augustinians), Piazza S. Bartolo, 7. The date of construction which probably dates back to the second half of the 13th century is uncertain. It is assumed that it is the Sepolcreto dei Ventimiglia: in fact, Francesco I Ventimiglia was buried here in 1338. The church, with one nave, was enlarged in 1775 and embellished and decorated in 1794. Among the works it contains, there are two paired columns from the cloister. Augustinian of the fourteenth century, a marble polyptych attributed to Antonello Gagini, and a wooden sculpture depicting San Bartolomeo from the end of the eighteenth century with stylistic characteristics that refer to the sculptor Filippo Quattrocchi. The church is flanked by the former Augustinian convent dating back to the end of the seventeenth century which still retains its ancient planimetric and altimetric structure and the original layout of the interior spaces.  
• Convent of the Capuchin Fathers. The first stone was laid on November 28, 1689, at the request of the Marquis of Geraci. The building develops in a horseshoe shape with a spacious courtyard in the center. On the left there is the eighteenth-century church, where it is still possible to glimpse the fine stuccoes that adorned it, on the right there is the refectory with two eighteenth-century frescoes depicting the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, while on the upper floor there is the dormitory with the various cells. The convent now houses the museum of crafts and the exhibition of local nativity scenes. 

Other

• 37.85375514.1532888 Geraci Castle (Ventimiglia Castle). Above a massive sandstone rock are the ancient remains of the Ventimiglia Manor. The construction was the first western defense of the vast Shire as its position made it inaccessible. In addition to its position, the inaccessibility was also due to the structure: inside the rooms had a military distribution and location, devoid of luxuries, and was prepared to withstand even long assaults. In the subsoil there were water cisterns, spaces for provisions and prisons; on the ground floor there were the stables, the kitchens, the weapons rooms and the loopholes for the shooters while the upper floor was used as the residence of the count's family. It is assumed that the castle was built in the Byzantine age. The Normans transformed it for their military needs and at the time of the Aragonese and the Ventimiglias it became a real military fortress; in fact, the closure of the urban perimeter with large doors dates back to this period, the signs of which can still be seen today. Today the ruins of the castle survive: the cut-off corners of the towers, the loopholes, the empty cisterns and the small church of Sant'Anna, intact in the middle of the ruins.  

• 37.85156914.1527349 "Bevaio" of the SS. Trinity (Drinking trough of the SS. Trinity). The drinking trough of the SS. Trinità, built by the Marquis Simone Ventimiglia, rests on a rectangle of twenty meters in length, has two side stone fountains with four mouths that pour the water into sandstone bowls and a central basin where the water coming from the fountains is gathered . A crenellated cornice rises on the tympanum and the fountains are surmounted by two pyramids, each of which bears a coat of arms, depicting the three Norman counties, with three horizontal stripes and three stars and two masks below. The building on the left is flanked by floral motifs, the one on the right by a vase of flowers. Inside a rectangular frame there is the coat of arms of the Ventimiglia family depicting a rampant lion holding a sword with its front legs, while the rear ones are covered by a helmet. The building was lowered in the Fascist period to make it functional as a drinking trough for the animals. 
• Universal Peace Monument. Work of the contemporary sculptor Tommaso Geraci depicting Massimiliano Kolbe, Salvo D'Acquisto and Mahatma Gandhi, it is located inside the Parco delle Rimembranze. 

Events and parties

• Feast of St. Joseph. March 19. 
• Feast of the Holy Crucifix. May 3. 
• Transhumance festival. In May. 
• Corpus Christi. In June. 
• Maria SS Annunziata. Second Sunday in July. 
• Feast of the shepherds. Third Sunday of July. 
• Giosta dei ventimiglia. First week of August. 
• Feast of San Giacomo. Second Sunday of August. 
• Feast of San Bartolo (Patron of Geraci Siculo). August 24. 

What to do

• 37.85951814.1550631 Look out over the Salto dei Ventimiglia, Via Francesco Ventimiglia, 27. The Ventimiglia jump is a glass view that allows you to perceive the emptiness under your feet. The name derives from a legend according to which one of the Ventimiglia committed suicide at that point by launching himself with his horse and crashing into the ravine. 
• Several depart from the city Paths of the Madonie which can be the starting or arrival base for naturalistic excursions.

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Moderate prices

• 37.85692414.1536721 Neverland, Via Vittorio Emanuele, 43, ☎ 39 0921 643849. Cafe. 

Average prices

• 37.85474914.1502562 Eagle Refuge, Via Nazionale (Just outside the village, next to a playground), ☎ 39 333 522 8312. Thu-Mar 11: 00-23: 00. Trattoria and pizzeria with good quality food and a fair price. The owner is very kind and is passionate about geology (many rock samples and old peasant tools are visible inside). You can ask him for suggestions related to the surrounding area. 
• 37.85664714.1536553 At the Vucciria restaurant-pub, Via del Progresso, 45, ☎ 39 0921 580072. 

Where stay

Average prices

• 37.85626214.1534021 O'Tunn nights, Via Vittorio Emanuele, 75, ☎ 390921643407. 100 € (triple room) (Jun 2020). 3-star hotel with elegant interior decor. 

Safety

How to keep in touch

Around

• 37.87361114.1055561 Evergreen oak woods of Geraci Siculo and Castelbuono (Going through the between Geraci Siculo is Castelbuono). In this part of the Madonie there are evergreen oak woods among which many cork oaks can be seen along the state road.  
• 37.8606214.127772 Santa Maria Della Cava. Church along one of the hiking trails. 
• Castelbuono

Useful information

• 37.85974214.1549633 Pro Loco, Via Francesco Ventimiglia, 47. 

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Geraci Siculo
• Commons contains images or other files on Geraci Siculo

Usable : the article respects the characteristics of a draft but in addition it contains enough information to allow a short visit to the city. Use i correctly listing (the right type in the right sections).