Sperlinga

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Sperlinga
coat of arms
Sperlinga (Italy)
Sperlinga
Country Italy
region Sicily
Free community consortium Enna  (EN)
Local name Spillinga
Coordinates 37 ° 46 '  N , 14 ° 21'  E Coordinates: 37 ° 46 '0 "  N , 14 ° 21' 0"  E
height 750  m slm
surface 58 km²
Residents 712 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 12 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 94010
prefix 0935
ISTAT number 086017
Popular name Sperlinghesi
Patron saint San Giovanni Battista
Website Sperlinga
Sperlinga
Sperlinga

Sperlinga is an Italian municipality in the Enna Free Community Consortium on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and thus belongs to the autonomous region of Sicily with 712 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019). The place is a member of the association I borghi più belli d'Italia (The Most Beautiful Places in Italy).

Location and dates

Sperlinga is located in the north-west of Sicily, 49 km north of Enna , in a very hilly area, surrounded by extensive forests. The inhabitants produce grain , fruit and olives or live from the sale of pottery , weaving articles and souvenirs . However, since young people hardly have any livelihood opportunities, many of the young residents continue to migrate to find work elsewhere

The neighboring communities are Gangi ( PA ) and Nicosia .

history

The first castle is documented under the Normans ( owned by Russo Rosso in 1132 ). At the same place, building on the old castle, the Baron di San Bartolomeo di Belice founded the core of the current citadel in 1597 , which has since been rebuilt and expanded several times . Around it, following the course of the rock and the valley, the place developed, from the center of which a staircase is carved into the tufa of the massive boulder of the citadel. Some of the caves, which have been developed into a sophisticated, spacious defense system with connecting tunnels, are much older on several floors and have been inhabited by people for thousands of years.

Attractions

The castle

As a special feature, Sperlinga offers a unique, towering Höhlenburgberg. A far-reaching self-sufficiency of residents community for a long time was guaranteed by large stockpiling, a cistern system for water supply and even livestock in the lower caves, so that in later times during the Sicilian Vespers uprisings called the Sicilians against the occupying French , French troops in Sperlinga a large and successfully withstood a long siege.

Many of the partly ancient natural, partly enlarged or newly hewn caves in and around the castle were still used as poor dwellings until recently, today most of them are empty or are used as cattle stables and chambers, although some successful extensions and conversions in recent times show that the caves can be expanded into modern and comfortable apartments with unsurpassable climatic conditions with appropriate capital investment. But this possibility has hardly been used so far, as the place is now impoverished despite its great tourist potential. So far, no investor has been found willing to provide the necessary infrastructure for overnight guests, although great and impressive efforts have already been made to renovate the castle with the reconstruction of the castle church and the establishment of a museum. Due to the lack of overnight accommodation and restaurants, the few visitors usually leave quickly without leaving any money in town.

Events

The inhabitants are called Sperlinghesi and worshiped as the patron saint of the Holy. John the Baptist ( San Giovanni Battista ), whose feast is celebrated every year on June 24th with a large, festive procession to which most of the former residents of the village and their descendants also travel.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ^ I borghi più belli d'Italia. Borghipiubelliditalia.it, accessed May 29, 2017 (Italian).

Web links

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