Petralia Sottana - Petralia Sottana

Petralia Sottana is a center of the Palermo within the Madonie park.

To know

It was awarded the orange flag by the Italian Touring Club.

Geographical notes

Petralia Sottana is the seat of the Madonie Park Authority to which it belongs.

To the north-west of the city there is Monte Alto (1819 m.) And San Salvatore (1912 m.); to the north-east a series of “lace” and “cozzi”, all over 1500 meters, among which Pizzo Catarineci (1600 m.) stands out. Going along the SP 54 which points north, you reach Portella Mandarini (1200 m.), One of the most important geological sites in the area. Between valleys, streams, small waterfalls, overhanging walls, inaccessible peaks, you proceed in the middle of a suggestive beech forest mixed with hollies of considerable size, gradually crossing some districts: Pomieri, Canna, Foguara, Battaglietta until you reach Piano della Battaglia (1619 m.), At the foot of Mount Mufara. This last stretch of road moves inside a grandiose natural amphitheater, consisting of a continuous series of high mountain ranges: Pizzo Corvo (1357 m.), Pizzo Canna (1429 m.), Monte Ferro (1906 m.) , towards the north, and Pizzo Cerasa (1559 m.), Monte Daino (1786 m.), Monte Mufara (1867 m.) to the south, and is strongly characterized by some of the most significant vegetation, faunal and geological aspects of the central Madonite massif .

How to orient yourself

Fractions

• 37.87700114.0239571 Battle Plan - resort on the Madonie at 1500 m, known during the winter season for its ski fields and ski lifts.
• Landro
• Tudia
• Recactive

How to get

By car

Coming from Palermo walk the and then the Exit Tremonzelli and follow the direction Castellana Sicula pass it and continue to Petralia.

Coming from Catania on go out to Irosa follow the up Vizzini district and here take the northbound (Fasano) and at the crossroads of the Madonnuzza turn left for Petralia Sottana.

How to get around

The size of the village allows for easy walking.

What see

Religious buildings

• 37.80743914.0927391 Church of San Francesco, Corso Paola Agliata, 114. Church with a late medieval structure and interiors in "Madonite baroque" style flanked by the former convent and a bell tower with a viable archway rebuilt in 1744. The interiors with 17th century frescoes by Gaspare Vazano and Giangiacomo Lo Varco with stories of San Francesco, Virgin and Christ. Numerous works of art such as an eighteenth-century pulpit in gilded wood by Pietro Bencivinni (seventeenth century). A canvas of the Madonna degli Angeli (school of Novelli) and two canvases Francis receiving the stigmata of 1624 and the Holy Family with Saint Anna and Saint Joachim by Giuseppe Salerno (Zoppo di Gangi) from 1607.

In the façade of the church there is a marble table for the conversion of the ancient measures dated 28 April 1862, these are the ancient units of measurement present in Sicily. 

• 37.80818414.091722 Basilica of Maria SS. Assunta (mother church), Piazza Umberto I. Located on a terrace overlooking the valley of the Southern Imera, the building dominates the entire town. The church was rebuilt in 1633, but in its structure and inside it still retains architectural and artistic elements of the previous construction of the fifteenth century. Of particular note are an elegant Gothic-Catalan portal and the imposing bell tower in white stone. The interior with works from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century.  

• 37.80787414.093923 Church of SS. Trinity (Abbey), Via Monastero. Former Dominican monumental complex. The church built in the sixteenth century preserves one of the most impressive lithic works in the area: a bas-relief polyptych in polychrome stone of about eight meters of the sixteenth century, the work of Giandomenico Gagini, which tells the story of Christ in 23 panels framed between candelabra and decorative reliefs, and surmounted by a tympanum with the effigy of theImago Trinitas, and closed at the bottom by a predella with the apostles. 

• 37.80664114.0928824 Church of Santa Maria alla fontana, Via Paolo Agliata 85. The sixteenth-century church stands attached to a rocky wall where spring water flows into a cup-shaped fountain with a mask. The current appearance is a work of 1615, as documented by the inscription placed on the plaque above the portal even though the building already existed in the sixteenth century. Inside there is a Virgin and Child from the Gaginian school. 
• Conventual complex of the Capuchins (not far from Calvary). The convent looks like a simple three-level building that develops around a cloister. 
• Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Capuchin Church). Inside, the church has a central and a lateral nave, marked by arches in the direction of the altars, above the entrance is the choir. The barrel vault is decorated with paintings: in the direction of the choir is the Annunciation, in the center Stories of Christ and in the back towards the main altar a decoration with the Holy Spirit. 
• 37.80763814.0961945 Convent complex of the Reformed Minor Fathers (on a rocky spur along the provincial road). The construction of Santa Maria degli Angeli began in 1603 and celebrated its solemn reopening on August 20, 1663. The building is on two levels and is built around a square cloister punctuated laterally by five round arches resting on columns Tuscan stonework in limestone supporting a portico covered with cross vaults. Inside, in the room that was used as a refectory, there is a seventeenth-century fresco depicting the Last Supper.

The adjacent church dedicated to Santa Maria degli Angeli, was built at the same time as the convent building, has a facade with a single salient and a simple portal accessible via a short staircase. Inside it has a single nave and a choir above the entrance. 

• 37.80494914.091816 Church of Saints Marco and Biagio, Corso Paola Agliata, 16. It has a single salient façade with a rose window, and the entrance portal is preceded by a staircase. Inside it still retains the original majolica flooring and a single nave marked by five altars interspersed with elegant Tuscan columns with composite capitals, while on the left altars there are two oval windows. 

• 37.8077214.092587 Church of the Misericordia, Corso Paola Agliata, 124. The complex sundial features a nursery rhyme that gives indications for reading the solar time: thin radius on the curve points to the average time, and in one the shadow the true one on the straight line, from the departed axis. The complicated sundial is composed of a gnomonic triangle that supports the axostyle where a circular plate (photosciaretic gnomon) rests, with a hole in the center, the heliotrope hole from which the light filters. The motto shows us how to read the average time, that is the time common to our time zone (which changes depending on the latitude) through the projection of the shadow of the stylus (the stick supported by the gnomonic triangle). On the surface of the sundial are the diurnal zodiacal hyperbolae which, through a grid formed by declination lines, indicate the days of entry of the sun into a specific zodiac sign. A series of lines that form an 8 with letters all around representing the months of the year, are the lemniscate or analemma that with a correct equation of time indicate the civil hours of the time zone. The true local time lines are marked along three perimeters. 
• Church of the Holy Cross (Santa Crucidda). 

• 37.80811614.0921178 Church of the Monte di Pietà, Via Carapezza. 
• Church of SS. Savior. 
• Church of the Madonna del Carmine. 
• Church of San Giovanni Battista. 
• Church of the Patriarch San Giuseppe. 
• Church of San Giuseppe di Campagna. 
• Church of San Pietro. 
• Church of the Spartenza. 
• 37.80767414.091649 Oratory of the Rosary, Via Paolo Agliata, corner of via Gilberti. 
• Oratory of the SS. Sacrament. 
• Former College of Mary. 
• Former Dominican cloistered monastery. 
• Former Convent of the Franciscans. 
• 37.80812514.09209110 Church of the Monte di Pietà. 

Civil buildings

• Casa du currivu. This building has become famous, even from a journalistic point of view, for being the narrowest house in Italy, just one meter. The reason for this strange feature is related to a quarrel between relatives for which the building next door was covered by this construction out of spite. Given its small size, the building is obviously not habitable but has itself become a tourist attraction. 
• "Pucci" Palace. Elegant building built in the seventeenth century with ashlar and crenellated turret. 
• Palazzo "Pucci known as Martinez". Headquarters of the Madonie Park Authority. Built by Don Gandolfo Pucci around 1940 on a pre-existing 17th century building. 
• "Calascibetta" Palace. Built in the 17th century, remodeled in the 19th. It presents a varied testimony of floor tiles. 
• "Rampolla di Polizzello" building. Built in the 17th century, it is one of the finest examples of noble architecture in the country. 
• "Daughter of Granara" Palace. Built in the seventeenth century with an elegant façade remodeled in the twentieth century. 

Other

• 37.80702614.09288911 Civic Museum "Antonio Collisani" (Petralese Ethno-Anthropological Civic Museum), Corso Paola Agliata, 104. It is a museum consisting of two sections, the geological one with Madonie rocks and the archaeological section presents finds from the Grotta del Vecchiuzzo and the “Collisani Collection”, with terracotta statues, attic bases and bronze artefacts. 
• Petralia nativity scene, Church of the Monte di Pietà, ☎ 39 347 0673453, 39 328 7013789, 39 349 5880938. On request. Nativity scene with glimpses of Petralia Sottana. 

Events and parties

• Virginieddi of San Giuseppe. March 19. devotional lunch 
• Holy Week. The rites of Holy Week take place from Palm Sunday, but tradition and faith give their maximum expression in the rites from Holy Thursday to Resurrection Sunday. All the families in the village participate in the celebrations that are often handed down. Sacred writing is interpreted in a holy and great theatrical and ritual dramatization; the faithful become both actors and protagonists. 
• Crucifix Bilici celebrations. 
• Feast of San Calogero. June 18. Linked to the pagan celebrations and rites of Kronos, (for the Romans Saturn) protector of agriculture, the patron saint has been celebrated since 1860. The statue of San Calogero (17th century) is carried on the shoulders through the streets of the town in a very heavy wooden “vara” (fercolo) (18 quintals). To decorate the "vara" of San Calogero with more than the ex voto, there is never a shortage of roses, lilies, "shells of frummientu" (ears), broad beans and sour cherries. In the symbolism the black cherries, have the purpose of favoring and protecting crops, a symbol of prosperity. Fava beans are also part of those fruits offered during rites in field work; they are a symbol of fertility, of reincarnation and represent the first gift to come from the earth and the beginning of the rites of spring. The ear is linked to the cult of Ceres, the goddess of crops, but it is also a symbol of charity and abundance, of death and rebirth, a symbol of growth and fertility because it is both nourishment and seed. Preceding the procession is a group of "players of the palio", who exhibit strength and skill, with a clear phallic reference, in "playing" a pole dressed with a banner with the effigy of the Saint and adorned with the characteristic "giummi". 
• BatrArt. July. 
• White night of the cinema. July. 
• Feast of the Assumption (Madonna dell'Alto) and pilgrimage, Sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Alto. August 15. Pilgrimages (organized by a committee and spontaneous groups) depart on several days from the Piazza del Duomo: hundreds of faithful walk to the Sanctuary through a tiring but at the same time fascinating journey. The Sanctuary can also be reached by off-road vehicles. 
• Re-enactment of the Ancient Wedding Procession and Pantomime Dance of the Cordella. First Sunday after mid-August. The wedding procession on horseback commemorates the departure of the bride from her parents' house to go to the new home. Twelve pairs of dancers placed in a circle hold with one hand twenty-four ribbons called Kurdeddi of different colors and which hang from a pole. Dancing couples perform a rotation that weaves the ribbons. At this point the dance takes place in the opposite direction in order to dissolve the plots. This dance has an auspicious function, so that their union is fruitful. 
• Festival of popular traditions. August. 
• Mediterranean Jazz Manouche Meeting. Last weekend of August. Jazz event with Italian and international guests, with morning and evening jam sessions. Related events are held for the occasion. 
• Celebrations in honor of Maria SS Bambini. September. 
• Autumn Feast of Madonite Flavors. Last weekend of October. Party with tastings and promotion of the cultural and natural heritage of the area. 
• Blaze of Santa Lucia. December 13. 
• Christmas Novena. December 16-24. 

What to do

• 37.7901714.109061 Madonie Outdoor ASD, Madonnuzza junction, Petralia Soprana, ☎ 39 3473237734, @[email protected]. This institution organizes various activities with the municipalities of the Madonie including:excursion by rubber boat to the gorges of Tiberius (Pollina river), trekking on the back of a mule (but also horse and bicycle) to the Byzantine village of Canalotto, excursions along the paths and trazzere of the interior of the Madonie between Gangi, Sperlinga and geraci Sicula. They also organize themselves rock climbing is snowshoeing. 
• 37.8437314.097882 Madonie Adventure Park (Arriving from Palermo just before arriving in Petralia Sottana, continue towards Piano Battaglia on the SP54 for about 3 km, arriving from Catania, pass Petralia Sottana and continue towards Piano Battaglia for about 3 km.), ☎ 39 0917487186, @[email protected]. Adventure park with picnic areas e acrobatic courses in the trees for all ages. Archery, orientering, trekking, nording walking and many other outdoor activities. 
• Vivi le Madonie Association, ☎ 39 3397008480, 39 3804754377, @[email protected]. Tourism promotion association, organizes guided excursions. 

Urban itineraries

• Urban geological trail. Itinerary through the streets of the city to discover the different geological components at the buildings. The itinerary is marked with brass signs. 
• In the footsteps of the Gagini. Itinerary to discover the works of the sculptors Antonello, Giovanni and Domenico Gagini. 
• In the footsteps of the Zoppo di Gangi. Lame of Gangi is the pseudonym used by some painters, two from the 16th century and one from the 19th century Gangi. In Petralia Sottana there are several works visible through this itinerary. 

Shopping

How to have fun

Shows

• 37.807514.0926871 Cine Teatro Grifeo, Corso Paola Agliata, 108. 

Where to eat

Moderate prices

• 37.80674114.0928021 Gennaro food, Corso Paola Agliata 85. Exceptional product quality. 
• 37.80493314.0919452 Vices and whims, Corso Agliata P., 9, ☎ 390921641064. Cafe. 

Where stay

Average prices

• 37.808114.0931 The castle, Via Generale di Maria, 27, ☎ 39 0921641250, @[email protected]. 75€. 3-star hotel in the center located in an old renovated castle in the historic center, few rooms, some with exposed beams. Good service and excellent starting point for itineraries to visit the center of the Madonie 

Safety

How to keep in touch

Post office

• 37.80441814.0918472 Italian post, Via Principe di Piemonte, 1, ☎ 390921641210. 

Around

• 37.83196114.0503943 Sanctuary of the Madonna dell’alto, Monte Alto. It stands where a small church dedicated to the Madonna was almost certainly built between the 13th and 14th centuries. It is located at about 1817 m. above sea level. and it is counted among the highest Marian sanctuaries in Europe. Legend has it that the statue of the Madonna was found on the beaches near Cefalù and placed on a cart pulled by oxen, left free to stop in the place where the Sanctuary was to be built. The statue of the Madonna, to which a legendary find is attributed, bears the date 1471 on the pedestal, but we do not know if this date indicates the creation of the sculpture or its installation in the Sanctuary of Monte Alto.

The small church with a single nave, covered by a barrel vault, has a marble triumphal arch erected in 1797 by D. Gandolfo Bartuccelli. The small presbytery is closed by an elegant gate also from 1797.

On the right wall of the presbytery there are three votive tablets: the largest of these depicts a man who falls with his horse from a bridge and remains unharmed. The writings that tell the story of the miracle are illegible, only one name is identifiable Thomas Castrogiovanni, perhaps the name of the devotee who received the miracle. This painting is dated 1770 and certainly the devotee belonged to a noble family as he is depicted on horseback and wears rich clothes. The second picture is in worse condition, even here the writings are illegible. It depicts the collapse of a house, perhaps due to an earthquake, in which an entire family lived and with them some animals. The third picture depicts a man or a woman, lying in a bed still made with the trispi, dying of a wound to the face. At the foot of the bed a man invokes the intervention of the Madonna dell'Alto. In the left side aisle is the altar of the SS. Crucifix in papier mache erected in 1912 where the statue at the foot of which is the inscription of the altar "Ecce Agnus Dei" was exhibited in the same year.

The place is evocative for the nature that surrounds it and for the enviable view that can be enjoyed at high altitude. The Sanctuary as well as being a destination for pilgrimages is part of the Path of Peace. 

• 37.82315114.0776554 Hydroelectric plant of Catarratti, ☎ 39 0921 641811. Industrial archeology site. The power plant came into operation in 1908 and today it exhibits the energy transformation process of this renewable energy. 

Itineraries

Around the city you can walk the Paths of the Madonie of which the Sentiero Italia passes through the streets of Petralia Sottana.

Useful information

The city is full of fountains with excellent drinking water.

• Tourist information office (At the civic museum), ☎ 39 0921 641811. Or by downloading the Petralia Sottana app for Apple and Android. In addition, some free audio guides along the main monuments of the city also identifiable with a QR code. 
• Pro loco, Corso Paolo Agliata, 12, ☎ 39 0921 641154, @[email protected]. 

Other projects

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

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