Licata

Licata
Country	Italy
region	Sicily
Free community consortium	Agrigento (AG)
Local name	Licata
Coordinates	37 ° 6 ' N , 13 ° 57' E Coordinates: 37 ° 6 '30 " N , 13 ° 56' 49" E
height	8 m slm
surface	178.91 km²
Residents	36,113 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	202 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	92027
prefix	0922
ISTAT number	084021
Popular name	Licatesi
Patron saint	Sant'Angelo
Website	Licata
	; View of Licata

Licata is a town in the municipality of Agrigento consortium outdoors in the region Sicily in Italy .

Location and dates

Licata is 47 kilometers southeast of Agrigento on the coast. 36,113 residents live here (as of December 31, 2019), who mainly work in agriculture and industry. There are also jobs in the service industry and in tourism.

Licata is on the Canicattì – Syracuse railway line . From the port of Licatas, an important export port in Sicily, there is a ship connection to Valletta on Malta .

The neighboring municipalities are Butera ( CL ), Camastra , Campobello di Licata , Naro , Palma di Montechiaro and Ravanusa .

history

The area of the municipality was already settled in the Paleolithic . The Phoenicians drove here as early as 1000 BC. Chr. Trade. 280 BC BC Phintias of Akragas settled the inhabitants of the then destroyed city of Gela here and founded the city "Phintiades".

Under the Romans, a port was built in Licata, which made the city an important trading center and trading center for wheat. It was conquered by the Arabs in 827 and by the Normans in 1086 . The current name of the city goes back to the Greek Halykada , the "city built on salt" after the salty river Salso , which flows into the Mediterranean at Licata. The name appears for the first time in the 11th century as Lecatam in a document by Rogers I of Sicily . Another document from the same year mentions the city of Limpiadum .

Looted by Turkish pirates in 1553, Licata recovered and was expanded to the northwest. In 1943, American troops landed five kilometers west of Licata.

Buildings

Although Licata is mainly an industrial and commercial city today, the city offers a few attractions.

In the town

The Church of San Francesco and the Franciscan Monastery were built in the 16th century.
The church of San Domenico dates from the 17th century. Inside is a painting by Filippo Paladini .
The late Baroque Chiesa di Sant'Angelo with the Carmelite monastery dates from the 18th century and was built according to a design by Giovanni Biagio Amico . Here are the relics of St. Angelus .
The Art Nouveau city palace is located in Piazza Progresso and is the work of Ernesto Basile .
In the Archaeological Museum in the former Cistercian Abbey of Licata , finds from the urban area from the Greek period, from the Middle Ages and from the 17th and 18th centuries are on display.

Out of town

At the top of the Sant 'Angelo hill is a castle with a tower from the 17th century. Below the fort is the church of Santa Maria La Vetere.
The excavations on Sant 'Angelo hill can be visited, traces of settlements and graves have been found.
The Castello di Falconara is located between Gela and Licata directly on the coast, see Butera .

Town twinning

There are town partnerships with Reinheim , a town in the Hessian district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in Hesse , with Fürstenwalde / Spree , a town in the Brandenburg district of Oder-Spree , and with Cestas in France .

sons and daughters of the town

Angelo Italia (1628–1701), baroque architect
Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi (1903-1936), Italian-American mobster
Rosa Balistreri (1927–1990), folk singer
Pietro Grasso (* 1945), lawyer and politician
Lara Cardella (* 1969), writer

Web links

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

Information about Licata (Italian)

Individual evidence

↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
^ Luigi Milanesi: Dizionario Etimologico della Lingua Siciliana . Mnamon, Milan 2015, ISBN 978-88-6949-056-9 , pp. o. p . ( google.at [accessed on March 31, 2020]).

[1] Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.

[2] Luigi Milanesi: Dizionario Etimologico della Lingua Siciliana . Mnamon, Milan 2015, ISBN 978-88-6949-056-9 , pp. o. p . ( google.at [accessed on March 31, 2020]).