ITALy SALEMI - GIBELLINA

Italy, a parliamentary republic, is situated in the southern europa with a population of 60,5 million inhabitants. Rome is its capital .It is a peninsula with two great islands: Sicily and Sardinia. Sicily ,officially named Sicilian Region, is an autonomous region with a special statute with a population of 5 million inhabitants. Palermo is the capital of the Region. Sicily is the biggest island in Italy and in the Mediterranean sea.

SALEMI Salemi is an Italian town with a population of 10 thousand inhabitants. It is situated in the heart of the Belice Valley and it is an Arab-Norman centre.

It’s between olive oil trees and vineyards and it rises around the castle with its tower where you can have an amazing view up to the sea.

Salemi is part of the most beautiful boroughs in Italy for its history, artistic value, traditions. The town has been built on the site of the ancient city of Halyciae. (XII before C.)

Theatre of the several wars between Selinunte and Segesta, Salemi has always been allied to Segesta. (V-III before C.)

In 827 before C. Arabs conquered it and they made it flourish In 827 before C. Arabs conquered it and they made it flourish. They named with the name of Salemi.

Arabs introduced many new and important cultivations: oranges, lemons, apricots, asparagus and spices

In Norman period, 1077 A.D., the town knew an important development and the castle was built just in this time

In 1860 GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI reached Salemi where , on May 14th, he was welcomed by the population with great enthusiasm. In that occasion Salemi was proclaimed capital of Italy, but just for one day.

In 1968, in the night between the 14th and the 15th, Salemi was seriously struck by a strong earthquake that destroyed many centres of Belice Valley .

Before the earthquake After the earthquake

After this event, the politicians of Salemi and the architects called to work about the reconstruction, decided together to give a new style to Salemi

Salemi embodies the culture and the architecture of the three monotheistic religion because of its districts

Christian mosaics

Jewish dicstrit

Arabic district

The S Joseph feast is celebrated on March 19th and it is very participated. In this occasion, men and women build votive altars made of wood and leaves of myrtle and laurel, they are called “cene”.

In addition there are oranges, lemons and some breads depicting animals, plants and all the forms of the nature .they have got strong and old symbolic meanings.

For the feast of S. Joseph, people eat the “Sfinci”

GIBELLINA Gibellina is a small town with about 4 thousand inhabitants. Schools of Gibellina and Salemi are an only school, infact, in Italy small schools are merget into a big school because of the spending review.

The actual inhabitated centre, known as new Gibellina, has risen after the 1968 earthquake in a site that is 11km from the old one. The old centre, completely destroyed has been abandoned and today it is known as old Gibellina.

For the rebuilding of the town the mayor of that time, Ludovico Corrao had the fantastic idea to humanize the territory calling to Gibellina very famous artists and architects as Pietro Consagra and Alberto Burri.

At once, the town became an immense laboratory of artistic experimentation and pieces of value renewade the urban space

Nowadays Gibellina is en plain air museum and there are a lot of notable architectural works: the Cretto di Burri, the Meeting, the Cathedral, the Gibellina Star and so on..

The Orestiadi, an international festival of theatre, cinema, music, painting has been taking place since 1981.

About the culinary tradition, we can remember the “nfigghiulata” that is a particular bread with onion, sausage, and potatoes For the feast of S.Martino, the women prepare “muffulette” soft spicy sandwiches, you can eat them with olive oil, cheese and tomato.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.