PALMA DI MONTECHIARO CASTLE - CHIARAMONTE FAMILY
sicily-travel
Among the various beautiful Chiaramonte Castles in Sicily, the Palma di Montechiaro Castle, in the Province of Agrigento, is the only built on a rocky coast vertically on the sea. Accomplished in 1353 probably by Federico III Chiaramonte, Count of Modica, was, due to its strategic position, of great importance in the history of the struggle against the pirates. After the death of Andrea Chiaramonte and the confiscation of all his properties, the castle went to the Moncada family who changed the name in Montechiaro with the clear intent to remove the memory of the previous lords. In 1580, the castle went to Mario Tomasi, progenitor of the Lampedusa and Gattopardi family, and remained in the family property until the 1957, when Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, famous writer of the romance "Il Gattopardo" (The Leopard) in which is represented the decline of the Sicilian aristocracy, died. The chapel of the castle has a notable interest because it keeps the fascinating Madonna of Montechiaro, marble statue attributed to Antonello Gagini (1478-1536), artist from Palermo. In 1553 the pirate Dragut, Solimano's lieutenant, sacks and sets fire to Licata, then stormed the Palma di Montechiaro Castle and decapited the marble statue of Our Lady. The popular tradition tells that the pirate could not take off the body of the statue because it was become miracolously very heavy and the pirates could not weigh anchor until they did not put back in the right place the head of the Virgin. In fact the statue has the head soldered with an iron sheet.
+39 347 6708101
