Caltagirone

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Caltagirone
Template: Infobox municipality in Italy / maintenance / coat of arms missingNo coat of arms available.
Caltagirone (Italy)
Caltagirone
Country Italy
region Sicily
Metropolitan city Catania  (CT)
Local name Caltaggiruni / Cartaggiruni
Coordinates 37 ° 14 ′  N , 14 ° 31 ′  E Coordinates: 37 ° 14 ′ 0 ″  N , 14 ° 31 ′ 0 ″  E
height 608  m slm
surface 382 km²
Residents 37,355 (Dec 31, 2019)
Population density 98 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 95041 Capoluogo, 95040 Granieri and Santo Pietro
prefix 0933
ISTAT number 087011
Popular name Calatini or Caltagironesi
Patron saint San Giacomo il Maggiore
Website Caltagirone
Belvedere Santa Maria del Monte

Caltagirone is a town and municipality of the Metropolitan city of Catania in the Region of Sicily in Italy with 37,355 inhabitants (December 31, 2019). Caltagirone is one of the late baroque towns of the Val di Noto that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Location and dates

Caltagirone is 74 km west of Catania . The residents work in industry and agriculture.

The neighboring municipalities are Acate ( RG ), Gela ( CL ), Grammichele , Licodia Eubea , Mazzarino , Mazzarrone , Mineo , Mirabella Imbaccari , Niscemi ( CL ), Piazza Armerina ( EN ) and San Michele di Ganzaria .

history

People lived in the area around Caltagirone even in prehistoric times . This is evidenced by necropolises in the area, above all the Montagna di Caltagirone necropolis , in which in 1903 Paolo Orsi more than 1500 rock-chamber tombs were researched, dating back to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC Go back BC. Remains of a prehistoric (possibly Sicilian ) settlement have also been found in the area of ​​the municipality .

The present city was founded in the 9th century by the Arabs, who built a fortress here and named it Qalat-al-Ghiran (castle over the caves; in Latin sources as calatagerun ). The fortress was captured by a group of Ligurians in 1030, but they were unable to hold the city for long. Even after the conquest of Sicily by the Normans between 1061 and 1091, Caltagirone remained Arabic. In 1161 displaced Arabs fled from neighboring towns to Caltagirone. Under the rule of Frederick II from 1207, the city continued to grow.

From the 15th century, Caltagirone developed into the city of pottery. At that time around 20,000 people lived here and around 1,000 were ceramists. To this day, Caltagirone is considered the “ceramic capital” of Sicily.

The 1693 earthquake in Val di Noto destroyed the city. It was rebuilt in the same place over the course of about ten years in the Sicilian Baroque style.

economy

Caltagirone is one of the historical centers of pottery production in Sicily. Ceramic production has been proven in Sicily since the Neolithic . Over the millennia, suggestions from outside have been taken up again and again. Since 1918 there has been a state technical school for ceramics ( Istituto Statale d'Arte per la Ceramica “L. Sturzo” ), which was founded on the initiative of the then mayor Don Luigi Sturzo . It also offers special training in ceramic restoration. Caltagirone ceramics are now marketed worldwide.

traffic

The place is connected to the Italian rail network with the Lentini Diramazione – Caltagirone – Gela railway. Because of a bridge collapse, Caltagirone is the end of the line from the direction of Lentini Diramazione.

A narrow-gauge rack railway, the Dittaino – Caltagirone line , was closed in 1971.

At Caltagirone there is a small airfield ( Aviosuperficie Massarotti ) for general aviation .

Buildings

S. Giuliano Cathedral
  • Town hall from the 19th century
  • Teatrino, built in 1792 based on a design by Natale Bonaiuto, today the seat of the Ceramic Museum with a collection of Sicilian ceramics and the seat of the Art Institute for Ceramics
  • Municipal museum in the former Bourbon prison with exhibits by artists such as sculptures and paintings as well as coins from the region
  • Cathedral of S. Giuliano of Angiovini origin, rebuilt at the beginning of the 19th century
  • Church of San Francesco di Assisi
  • Church of San Francesco di Paola
  • Santa Maria del Monte church
  • Santa Maria del Monte staircase, built in 1606 and originally planned as a road to connect the upper part of the town with the lower one (the 142 steps have been covered with hand-painted ceramics since 1954, which show the history of ceramics creation)
  • Museum with original puppets from the Sicilian Marionette Theater
  • Giardino Pubblico, city park in the style of English gardens with an artificial lake and a Moorish bandstand
  • Villa Patti, built around 1900 in neo-Gothic historicism

photos

  • Santa Maria del Monte staircase with ceramic steps

  • Santa Maria del Monte staircase with flowers

  • Detailed view of the Santa Maria del Monte staircase

  • Chiesa Santa Maria del Monte

  • Chiesa San Francesco d'Assisi

  • Villa Patti

  • Palazzo dell'Aquila

Events

  • At the end of May, the Santa Maria del Monte staircase is lavishly decorated with flowers in honor of Maria Santissima dei Conadomini.
  • Every year on July 24th and 25th, the stairs to the feast of Saint Giacomo, the patron saint of the city, are lit with hundreds of candles and oil lamps.

sons and daughters of the town

literature

Web links

Commons : Caltagirone  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ^ Davide Tanasi: Per una Rilettura delle Necropoli sulla Montagna Di Caltagirgone. In: Vincenzo La Rosa (ed.): Le presenze micenee nel territorio siracusano. I Simposio Siracusano di Preistoria Siciliana in memoria di Paolo Orsi. Siracusa, December 15-16, 2003. Palazzo Impellizzeri. Museo Archeologico Regionale “Paolo Orsi” , Padua 2004, p. 399 ff.
  3. ^ Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri : The Bronze Age in Sicily. In: Harry Fokkens, Anthony Harding (eds.), The Oxford Handbook often the European Bronze Age , Oxford University Press 2013, p. 663.