Mineo - Mineo

Mineo is a city of Sicily.

To know

In addition to being the birthplace of the writers Luigi Capuana and Giuseppe Bonaviri, Mineo has several archaeological sites, including necropolis, ancient cities and castles.

Geographical notes

Its vast territory includes to the south and east a mountainous area of ​​altitude between 500 and 650 m s.l.m., these are the north-western offshoots of Iblei Mountains. To the north-west the inhabited center overlooks the Margi valley, it is a south-western appendage of the plain of Catania. To the north east is Mount Catalfaro.

When to go

The country enjoys a healthy and dry hilly climate. Precipitation is concentrated in the autumn and winter months, which are rainy. Summer is hot, dry and all in all mitigated due to the altitude and relative ventilation.

Background

Mineo is the birthplace of many nationally and internationally renowned personalities. Among the many they remember Luigi Capuana, Giuseppe Bonaviri, Paolo Maura, Cross Zimbone, Benedetto Cirmeni, Corrado Luigi Guzzanti, Pietro Rizzo etc.

How to orient yourself

Neighborhoods

The city is divided into districts that correspond to the three parishes, the subdivision is marked by three streets that radiate from the central square Piazza Ludovico Buglio towards the outskirts. These streets are: Via Palica (Varanna, Via Grande) which separates the district of Sant'Agrippina from that of Saint Peter. Via Divisione that separates the district of San Pietro from that of Saint Mary. Viale Crispi (Tri Pali) which separates the district of Santa Maria from that of Sant'Agrippina.

How to get

On the train

• 37.245714.7571 Mineo station. Station along the route Catania-Caltagirone-Gela. Since 2013 it has been downgraded to an intermediate checkpoint.  

How to get around

What see

Archaeological insights related to the territory of Mineo can be heard through the Izi travel a app this address.

Piazza Buglio

• 37.26472214.6908051 Church of San Tommaso Apostolo (college church), Piazza Buglio. The church is commonly called the "Collegio church" because it was annexed to the Jesuit college. It is a Latin cross building with a single nave. It preserves precious eighteenth-century stuccoes and marble frontals. Noteworthy is the wooden crucifix with a reliquary of holy martyrs: San Valerio Martire, Santa Lucilla, Santa Costanza. Of particular note are a deposition of the Caravaggesque Filippo Paladini (1613) and the sarcophagus of Tommaso and Desiata De Guerreri (or Gurreri) who were the founders of the Jesuit complex (1588). The project is attributed to the architect Father Natale Masuccio.  
• 37.26483914.6905622 Monument to Luigi Capuana, piazza Buglio (in the center of the main square). The bronze statue and panels are the work of the master Vincenzo Torre. The monument was inaugurated in 1936. The base is in travertine. The panels depict scenes from the writer's works: Giacinta, Bona genti, The Marquis of Roccaverdina and an allegory of his fairy tales. 

• 37.26467514.6905533 Palazzo Tamburino, piazza Buglio. The palace was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693. With its sober eighteenth-century lines, it presents relief ornaments of classical inspiration. Inside, the entrance hall is embellished with a staircase and Doric columns. 
• 37.26504314.6916484 former church of Santa Maria della Porta, via Ducezio. It is a church transformed into a private home. The title of this church refers to the adjacent Porta del Mercato. The seventeenth-century entrance portal enriched by twisted columns ending with classical capitals is noteworthy. The apsidal part, which still exists, is invisible as it is inserted in the building context of the other buildings.  
• 37.26488614.6912225 city ​​Hall (former Jesuit College), Piazza Buglio. The College was designed by the Jesuit architect Natale Masuccio da Messina. With the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily (1767) it passed into the patrimony of the civil administration. There are currently the municipal offices, the Justice of the Peace, the Receputo Gulizia historical archive, the Health Office, the Giuseppe Bonaviri Foundation, etc. The interesting internal cloister is used for cultural events. 

Churches

• 37.2665514.696 Church of San Pietro, Largo S. Pietro, 7, ☎ 39 0933982373. This sacred building, like the others in Mineo, has undergone alterations and restorations over the centuries. It was damaged by the earthquakes of 1542 and, in a very serious way, by that of 1693. The restoration work lasted until 1770. The facade was only completed in the second half of the nineteenth century. The church has a Latin cross shape and has three naves. It houses some valuable works: the seventeenth-century statue of Christ at the Column in polychrome wood; the altar in which it is kept is rich in polychrome marbles and a small silver door closing the ciborium, while in the side walls two stucco bas-reliefs depicting the sacrifice of Isaac and Moses that make water flow from the cliff stand out; the monumental eighteenth-century organ gable choir, in carved wood and pure gold gilding, the wooden pulpit carved with oil painted coffers from the late eighteenth century and the choir carved in walnut, the countless sacred vestments and relics.  

• 37.26453514.6883927 Church of Sant'Agrippina, Via Umberto, ☎ 39 0933981139. The first temple was built in 263 AD. on the ruins of a private oratory adjacent to the house where Sant'Eupresia received the remains of the Virgin and Martyr Agrippina from Rome. It was consecrated with the dignity of a basilica on 19 June 312 by San Severino, bishop of Catania. In the Arab era it was, perhaps, transformed into a mosque. In 1169 it was damaged by an earthquake, to be completely rebuilt in the 14th century. In 1556 it was elevated to the status of collegiate church. In the earthquake of 1693 it was almost completely destroyed (excluding the apse). It was almost entirely rebuilt in its present form at the beginning of the eighteenth century (the main façade appears incomplete). The church is a Greek cross with three naves. The interior of the church is adorned with stuccos from the Serpotta school, nineteenth-century frescoes by Sebastiano Lo Monaco (Sant'Agrippina chasing away the Muslims) and by the Baron (scenes from the life of Christ). It houses the wooden statue of the patron saint by Vincenzo Archifel and dating back to 1518.  

• 37.26703514.6924578 Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Largo Santa Maria Maggiore, 1, ☎ 39 0933982603. The origins of this church date back to around the middle of the third century. Originally it was a pagan temple dedicated to the sun god, converted into a church it was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Over the centuries it has suffered various damage caused by sieges and earthquakes. Destroyed in the 9th century by the Saracens who occupied the city, it was rebuilt or restored in the following years. It suffered damage in 1137 under the reign of the Norman Roger II and due to the earthquake of 1169 that shook the Val di Noto. Even more serious ruins suffered by the earthquake of 1542. The church will be dedicated to Santa Maria de Graecis. About a century later it was elevated to a collegiate church, it will take the name of Santa Maria Maggiore. In these years it suffered further damage and thanks to the benefactress Vincenza Stuto Limoli Nigido the church was reopened on Christmas day in 1692. A few days later it was razed to the ground by the earthquake in Val di Noto in 1693. The current church was rebuilt during the century later on a project by Antonio Caruso from Catania. The works will be completed only in 1872. The history of the Church of Santa Maria also in the following decades will be characterized by damage due to telluric events (1908, 1969, 1975, 1990 etc.).

The church has the shape of a Latin cross and has three naves. Among the interesting things it contains are: a baptismal font, a sixteenth-century marble sink, the alabaster statue of the Queen of the Angels, a gift from Count Roger in 1072, an ivory crucifix from the 1500s, a reliquary.  

• 37.2683914.6912119 Church of the Madonna di Odigitria, Via Trinacria, 185. The church was founded in the Byzantine era next to one of the city gates. In 1620 the Observant Fathers Minor built a convent right next to the church. After ups and downs in the second half of the nineteenth century the friars had to leave it, and in 1888 the monastery was transformed into a civic hospital, the current San Lorenzo Hospital. From this moment the church was no longer part of the old convent. The current appearance is roughly that obtained from a new restoration required after the earthquake of 1959. The church has one nave and among the many treasures it houses two wooden statues from the church of Santa Maria degli Angioli (one depicting Sant'Anna with young Maria and the other Maria SS. degli Angeli). The church of Itria has been for decades the heart of a very cohesive district proud of its peculiarities.  
• Cuba by Mineo (at the former Capuchin convent). 

Civil buildings

• Villa Santa Margherita. Luigi Capuana's country villa is almost completely abandoned. The building was built overhanging a deep canyon which gives the site a great charm. Capuana set his famous novel Scurpiddu here. 

• Villa Camuti. Summer holiday home of the Tamburino family, built in the mid-nineteenth century on a project by the architect Belfiore. The two-storey building is well preserved: you enter the upper floor with a beautiful staircase that begins with two flights and then continues with a single one, opening into a long balcony that wraps around all four sides of the house, allowing you to admire the 360º panorama. It rises on the plateau of the Camuti plateau. 

• 37.26528814.69094910 Luigi Capuana Culture Circle. Until 1767-68 it was the seat of the municipal administration, the Loggia. Later in 1841, it was leased to the Culture Club, as a conversation room for the nobles (notables) of the city. In the 20s of the twentieth century it became the Casa del Fascist, to return to the seat of the Luigi Capuana Culture Club after the war. The interior lounge is decorated and furnished in a floral style. 

• Palazzo Tamburino Merlini, via Paolo Maura. Eighteenth-century palace with clear references to Sicilian Baroque, it was inhabited by the historian and archaeologist Corrado Tamburino Merlini, major parish priest of the Collegiata S.Agrippina, who owns the archaeological museum of Mineo. It housed the only private oratory in Mineo, established in 1802. 

• 37.26671814.69247311 Palazzo Morgana, Largo Santa Maria Maggiore, 8 (It delimits the large S. Maria Maggiore on the side opposite the church). The palace, apparently already existed in medieval times, was the home of the Buglio family. Destroyed by the Val di Noto earthquake in 1693, it was rebuilt using stone material from the Ducezio castle. It has a sober classical style façade and an interesting internal courtyard. 
• 37.26729714.69259412 Ballarò Palace, Largo Santa Maria Maggiore. The eighteenth-century Ballarò palace, whose architectural lines are simple and elegant since 2009, is the provisional seat of the Town Hall. 

Museums

• 37.26671114.69088413 Capuana Palace ("Luigi Capuana" House Museum), Via Romano, 16, ☎ 39 0933 983056, @[email protected]. Here was born the writer Luigi Capuana, who became a leading exponent of "realism" together with his friend Giovanni Verga who visited him several times in Mineo. The eighteenth-century building, now home to the homonymous museum and the municipal library, is particular for the exhibitions and for the semicircular and triangular tympanums that adorn the balconies, as well as for the entrance portal and the beautiful staircase.  
• 37.2642614.69123314 "Corrado Tamburino Merlini" Civic Museum, Avenue of Remembrance, 8, ☎ 39 0933989059. € 1.00 and reduced 0.50. In this small museum there are several finds related to the territory. 
• 37.26536814.69166115 Museum of Memory (Ethno-anthropological Museum), Via Carlo Alberto, 21. 

Other

• 37.2681414.69266816 Ruins of the Ducezio Castle. The Castle already existed in 1360 when the wedding between Constance and Frederick III of Aragon, known as the simple one, was celebrated there. The earthquake of 1693 almost completely destroyed it. Today only ruins remain: part of the ancient walls and half of the main tower.  
• 37.26498314.69174617 Door Adinolfo. This is the ancient gate of the Market, the only one of the five gates that still exists in Mineo. The gates through which the city was accessed were: Porta del Mercato, Audientia (Audience), Jacò (perhaps from a Jewish Jacob who lived nearby), Odigitria (Itria) and Pusterna (it was a minor door, a post precisely). 

• 37.26757214.68616418 Municipal Cemetery of Mineo, Viale Gian Tommaso de Guerriero (next to the convent of the Capuchin friars). The church (seventeenth century) is dedicated to S. Vito, reproduced in a beautiful wooden statue, and to the Madonna della Grazie, depicted in an interesting oil painting (both today in the picture gallery of the Capuchin friars in Caltagirone). In the refectory hall you can admire an eighteenth-century fresco reproducing the Last Supper. In the cemetery of particular value is the noble chapel of the Tamburino Muratori family, the work of the architect Santi Bandieramonte. The chapel (1904) closes the main avenue of the cemetery. The exterior, all in white stone, is in the Italian-Gothic style, enriched by spiral columns and, in the tympanum of the entrance, by a delicate bas-relief depicting "the Pietà". In this cemetery there is also the tomb of Luigi Capuana.

The nearby convent incorporates the remains of one Islamic cuba of uncertain date: the square-plan building presents on each side, as per Islamic prototype, ogival arch openings almost completely walled up over the centuries. The original roof of the cuba was destroyed following the replacement of the domed part with a terrace pavement, a very invasive intervention which in fact also removed the angular connecting plumes. 

Outside the built-up area

• 37.3435414.67639619 Serravalle Castle. The construction of the castle dates back to the 13th century, other works were added to the original structure during the 19th century.  
• 37.27931214.70541120 Cave of Sant'Agrippina. The rupestrian complex of Lamia, known today as the cave of Santa Agrippina, due to its use as a rural sanctuary of the patron saint of Mineo, presents the characteristic features of a fortified site.  
• 37.34014214.57456421 Mongialino Castle. Ancient abandoned castle. The peculiarity of this castle lies in the toroidal structure of the main tower, the only example in all of Sicily.  
• 37.25559214.71990822 Caves of Caratabia. Sicilian graffiti from the 6th century BC This site represents a unicum, being the Sicilian traces mainly of tombs and few finds. However neglected it is undoubtedly an important testimony of the Sicilian past.  
• 37.28066914.71683323 Mount Catalfaro (near the border with the territory of Militello in Val di Catania). In this mountain there are remains between the prehistoric age (2000 BC) and the medieval one, a settlement from the Greek era is visible. On the highest point, the ruins of a medieval castle can be seen. 

• 

  Cave of Sant'Agrippina

• 

  Mongialino Castle

• 

  Graphite of Caratabia

• 37.3245414.6971224 Naftia lake (Palici lake, Palagonia lake or Palici mofeta), Contrada Rocchicella. It is a natural lake of sulphurous water. The origin of the lake is linked to the volcanic phenomena of the tertiary eruptive formation of the Monti Iblei-Val di Noto area. It is not directly connected to the Etna volcano as some ancient scholars supposed; it is a secondary volcanism phenomenon. Bubbles of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane constantly gush from the surface while two or three jets of water are lifted up by the pressure of the gases. The color of the water is greenish-yellow.

Unusual phenomena such as jets of water, bubbling and marginalization of and gas gave rise to a religious interpretation in remote antiquity. The phenomena attributed to particular divinities, such as volcanic ones in general, gave birth to the myth of the chthonic divinities of the Palici twins. Today the lake's emissions are exploited industrially.  

• Vallone Lamia. 

• 37.32944414.69805625 Paliké, Rocchicella locality. free. Tue-Sat 9: 00-13: 30, Wed 9: 00-17: 30. It is an archaeological area. The city of Paliké was founded on the hill overlooking the plain where the ancient sanctuary of the Palici was located. According to many historians, today's Paliké originates from ancient Paliké Palagonia, whose toponym would mean precisely "Palica Nea" or the New Palica. Since 1995, some excavation campaigns by the Superintendency have made it possible to identify, in the area in front of the cave that opens at the foot of the hill, the presence of a series of archaeological layers that go from the Mesolithic to the Swabian age. The most ancient structures that can be attributed to the sanctuary of the Palici date back to the Archaic age, which was rebuilt with monumental structures such as arcades and banquet hall in the 5th century BC. probably thanks to the initiative of Ducezio, Sicilian chief who would have fixed the seat of his league of Sicilian cities right at the sanctuary of Palici.

According to the Greek myth, the Palici gods would have been born from the union of Zeus with the nymph Talia: the temple would have risen on the mephitic banks of the lake, where some rites took place through which the priests performed prophecies and ordeals.  

• 37.24478114.68314226 Camuti plan (south of Mineo). Here are the remains of a prehistoric village dating back to the ancient Bronze Age, linked to the culture of Castelluccio (2000-1400 BC). The funds of some huts have been found and the relative necropolis has been identified with tombs with artificial caves, some with a decorated façade. 

Events and parties

• Holy Week. Easter. 
• Feast of the translation of the body of S. Agrippina, church of S. Agrippina. May 17. 
• Feast of the queen of angels, church of S. Maria Maggiore. last Saturday of May. 
• Feast of the martyrdom of St. Agrippina, church of S. Agrippina. June 23. 
• Feast of the Madonna Maria SS. of Help, Odigitria Church. last Sunday of September. 
• Feast of the Holy Family, Church of S. Maria Maggiore. last Sunday of December. 

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Where stay

Safety

• 37.26830914.6909572 Mineo hospital, via Trinacria, ☎ 39 0933 981234. 

How to keep in touch

Around

• Aidone
• Caltagirone
• Grammichele
• Licodia Euboea
• Militello in Val di Catania
• Palagonia
• Piazza Armerina
• Ramacca
• Vizzini

Other projects

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

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