Page 180 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sicily

178  SICIL Y AREA B Y AREA

r Bronte Environs
Around 12 km (7 miles) from
Road map E3. * 18,500. £ Ferrovia
Circumetnea (095-895 249). Bronte is Castello di Maniace, a
n Pro Loco, Via D’Annunzio 8 Benedictine monastery founded
(095-774 72 44 or 360-444 950). by Margaret of Navarre in 1174,
_ Oct: Pistachio festival. on the spot where the Byzantine
general Maniakes had defeated
Situated on a terraced lava the Arabs. Destroyed by the 1693
slope, Bronte was founded by earthquake, the site became the
Charles V. In 1799 Ferdinand IV property of Horatio Nelson. Today
of Bourbon gave the town and it looks like a fortified farm, with
its estates to Admiral Horatio a garden of exotic plants. Nearby
Nelson, who had helped him is the medieval Santa Maria,
suppress the revolts in Naples with scenes from the Book of
in 1799. In 1860, after the Genesis sculpted on the capitals
success of Garibaldi’s Red Shirts of the columns.
in Sicily, the peasants of Bronte
rebelled, demanding that + Castello di Maniace
Nelson’s land be split up among Tel 095-690 018. Open 9am–1pm,
them, but their revolt was put 2:30–7pm (2:30–5pm Nov–Mar).
down by Garibaldi’s men. The
episode was immortalized in a
short story by Verga (see pp26– t Randazzo The restored Via degli Archi Randazzo, with
7). The eruptions of 1651, 1832 Road map E3. * 11,500. @ Ferrovia its cobbled lava paving
and 1843 struck the centre of Circumetnea. n Pro Loco, Piazza
Bronte, which has however Municipio 17 (095-923 955). _ Easter ribbing are all that is left of the
managed to retain its original Week, 15 Aug: Processione della “Vara”, original Norman construction,
character, with stone houses Jul–Aug: medieval festival. ( Sun. while the double lancet
and steeply rising alleyways. ∑ prolocorandazzo.it windows and portals are Catalan.
The 16th-century Annunziata The nave with its black lava
has a sandstone portal and, Built of lava stone and set 765 m columns has multicoloured
inside, an Annunciation (1541) (2,509 ft) above sea level, marble altars and a marble basin
attributed to Antonello Gagini Randazzo is the town closest to sculpted by the Gagini School.
(see p57) as well as the craters of Mount Corso Umberto, the main street
some 17th-century Etna, but it has never in Randazzo, leads to Piazza San
canvases. In the been inundated with Francesco d’Assisi, dominated
village of Piana lava. In the Middle by the Palazzo Comunale, once
Cuntarati, the Ages it was sur- the monastery of the Minor
Masseria Lombardo rounded by a 3-km Order, which has an elegant
farm has been (2-mile) city wall, cloister with a cistern.
converted into an some parts of which The narrow side streets have
Ethnographic have survived, such as many examples of medieval
Museum which, Medieval window in the Porta Aragonese architecture. The most
among many central Randazzo gate on the old road characteristic of these is Via
interesting objects, to Messina. The major degli Archi, which has a lovely
has an Arab paper mill dating monument and symbol of the pointed arch and black lava
from the year 1000. Today town is Santa Maria, a basilica cobblestone paving. In Piazza
Bronte is famous for the built in 1217–39: the towered San Nicolò is the church of
production of pistachios. apses with the characteristic the same name, with a late
Renaissance façade made of lava
stone. In the interior there is a
fine statue of San Nicola of Bari
sculpted in 1523 by Antonello
Gagini. The bell tower was
damaged by an earthquake
in 1783. Its reconstruction
replaced the original cusp with
a wrought-iron balcony. After a
turn to the left, Corso Umberto
crosses a square where San
Martino stands. It has a beautiful
bell tower with single lancet
windows with two-coloured
The Castello di Maniace, near Bronte, the property of Lord Nelson’s heirs until 1981 borders, and a polygonal spire.
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp204–5 and pp216–17

178-179_EW_Sicily.indd 178 11/3/16 2:10 PM
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2.6)
Date 12th July 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm