Comune di Caltabellotta

Caltabellotta is a town in the Province of Agrigento. For its geographical position and its territorial strongholds it was identified by historians with the ancient Sicana city of Camico on whose ruins stood the Greek Triocala, which owes its name to three natural features surrounding it: the fortress that made it impregnable, the abundance of water and the fertility of its countryside. Its greatest splendor was reached at the time of Savius Triphone, who, at the head of fugitive servants, installed in this city his court, erected a royal palace and reigned until 99 BC, when the Roman Consul Aquilio, in one of the servile wars, razed it to the ground. Rebuilt, it still suffered the fate of devastation at the hands of the Arabs, who erected the “Castle of the oaks”, in Arabic “Qal’at Al-Ballut”, from which the current name of Caltabellotta comes. When the Normans arrived in Sicily, Triocala was conquered by Ruggero I d’Altavilla in 1090. The ruler inflicted a severe defeat on the Arabs and to perpetual memory built on the mountain a temple in honor of St. George with a double order of colonnades, of which no trace remains today. It is remembered for the so-called Peace of Caltabellotta which sanctioned the end of the Sicilian Vespers War, which ended on Mount Castello, otherwise known as the “Pizzo di Caltabellotta”. On 31 August 1302, probably in the castle of Pizzo, the peace treaty was signed, for which Frederick III was recognized King of Trinacria, with the commitment to convolute to marry Eleonora of Anjò, sister of Robert King of Naples, ending the war of the Vesper. In 1338 the County of Caltabellotta was founded. When Frederick III of Sicily granted it to his admiral Raimondo Peralta. It was later ruled by the Luna, Moncada, and Alvarez de Toledo. For the characteristic stone constructions leaning against the mountain it is called “crib town”. Caltabellotta boasts many