Caltagirone (; scn, Caltaggiruni ;
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
: ''Calata Hieronis'') is an inland city and ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' in the
Metropolitan City of Catania
The Metropolitan City of Catania ( it, Città metropolitana di Catania) is a metropolitan city in Sicily, southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Catania. It replaced the Province of Catania and comprises the city of Catania and other 57 munic ...
, on the island (and region) of
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, southern
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, about southwest of
Catania
Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also b ...
. It is the fifth most populous municipality of the Metropolitan City, behind
Catania
Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also b ...
,
Acireale
Acireale (; scn, Jaciriali, locally shortened to ''Jaci'' or ''Aci'') is a coastal city and ''comune'' in the north-east of the Metropolitan City of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy, at the foot of Mount Etna, on the coast facing the Ionian Sea. ...
,
Misterbianco
Misterbianco ( scn, Mustariancu; lat-med, Monasterium Album, lit=White Monastery' or 'White Minster) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Catania in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo and about ...
and
Paternò
Paternò ( scn, Patennò) is a southern Italian town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Catania, Sicily. With a population (2016) of 48,009, it is the third municipality of the province after Catania and Acireale.
Geography
Paternò ...
. Alongside Catania, it is the only town who is seat of a tribunal in the former province. Since 1987, the comune has obtained the City title, through presidential act. After Caltanissetta, it is the second most populous comune in Central Sicily.
The town is a production center of
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...
, particularly
maiolica
Maiolica is tin-glazed pottery decorated in colours on a white background. Italian maiolica dating from the Renaissance period is the most renowned. When depicting historical and mythical scenes, these works were known as ''istoriato'' wares ...
and
terra-cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
wares. Nowadays, the production is more and more oriented to artistic production of ceramics and terra-cotta sculptures. Other activities are mainly related to agriculture (production of
grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...
s,
olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ' ...
s,
peach
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, n ...
es), third-sector activities and tourism.
History
The city's name derives from the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
''"qal'at-al-jarar"'' ("Castle of
otteryjars") – a name that attests to the antiquity of the pottery works which are still thriving. It has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as shown by the presence of two necropoleis dating from the
second millennium BCE and by numerous other archaeological finds. It was later inhabited by the
Sicel
The Sicels (; la, Siculi; grc, Σικελοί ''Sikeloi'') were an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age. Their neighbours to the west were the Sicani. The Sicels gave Sicily the name it has held since antiquity, b ...
s pre-Roman population.
The Arabs built a castle here that in 1030 was attacked by
Liguria
Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...
n troops under the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
general
George Maniakes
George Maniakes (, transliterated as Georgios Maniaces, Maniakis, or Maniaches, , ; died 1043) was a prominent general of the Byzantine Empire of Byzantine Greek origin
during the 11 ...
, who have left traces of Ligurian language in the current dialect. The city flourished under the
Norman and
Hohenstaufen
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynas ...
domination, becoming a renowned center for production of ceramics.
The city was almost completely destroyed by the
earthquake of 1693. Many public and private buildings were then reconstructed in a
Sicilian Baroque
Sicilian Baroque is the distinctive form of Baroque architecture which evolved on the island of Sicily, off the southern coast of Italy, in the , when it was part of the Spanish Empire. The style is recognisable not only by its typical Baroque c ...
style. Primarily for this reason the city has been included, together with the surrounding territory, in an area protected by the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
World Heritage program.
In May 29, 1860, the town was looted by the
Bourbon army led by general Gaetano Afan de Rivera, while fleeing from the
Garibaldini forces towards Catania.
During the first part of the XX Century, it was the house of Italian
Christian democracy
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
, due to the presence of renowned politician
Luigi Sturzo
Luigi Sturzo (; 26 November 1871 – 8 August 1959) was an Italian Catholic priest and prominent politician. He was known in his lifetime as a "clerical socialist" and is considered one of the fathers of the Christian democratic platform. He w ...
. Later, the town expressed various nationwide politician, such as Italian Prime minister
Mario Scelba
Mario Scelba (5 September 1901 – 29 October 1991) was an Italian politician who served as the 33rd prime minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955. A founder of the Christian Democracy, Scelba was one of the longest-serving Minister o ...
, and Sicilian president
Silvio Milazzo.
Today, Caltagirone is a mid-tier Sicilian town. It is one of the 25 most populous town in Sicily, and one of the 250 most populous in Italy.
Geography
The municipality borders with
Acate
Acate ( Sicilian: ''Acati'' or ''Vischiri'') is a small town and ''comune'' in the south of Sicily, Italy, part of the province of Ragusa. It is located in the Dirillo
The Dirillo, or Acate, is a river in Sicily which springs from the Hybla ...
(
RG),
Gela
Gela (Sicilian and ; grc, Γέλα) is a city and (municipality) in the Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of area and population, it is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily. Gela is part of the Province of Ca ...
(
CL),
Grammichele
Grammichele ( scn, Grammicheli, Greek: ''Echetle'' (meaning "plowshare"); Latin: ''Echetla'', ''Ochula''; Medieval: ''Occhiolà'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Catania in Sicily, southern Italy. It is located at the feet o ...
,
Licodia Eubea
Licodia Eubea ( scn, Licuddìa) is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Catania, on the island of Sicily, southern Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Caltagirone, Chiaramonte Gulfi, Giarratana, Grammichele, Mazzarrone, Mineo, ...
,
Mazzarino (CL),
Mazzarrone
Mazzarrone ( Sicilian: ''Mazzarruni'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Catania in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo and about southwest of Catania.
Mazzarrone borders the following municipa ...
,
Mineo
Mineo ( scn, Minìu, Greek: ''Menaion'' and ''Μεναί'', Latin: ''Menaeum'' and ''Menaenum'') is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Catania, part of Sicily. It lies southwest of Catania, from Ragusa, from Gela, and from ...
,
Mirabella Imbaccari
Mirabella Imbaccari ( scn, Màcara, Latin: ''Imachara'' and ''Imacara'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Catania in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo and about southwest of Catania.
Mirab ...
,
Niscemi (CL),
Piazza Armerina
Piazza Armerina ( Gallo-Italic of Sicily: ''Ciazza''; Sicilian: ''Chiazza'') is a '' comune'' in the province of Enna of the autonomous island region of Sicily, southern Italy.
History
The city of Piazza (as it was called before 1862) develop ...
(
EN) and
San Michele di Ganzaria.
Its hamlets (''
frazioni
A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territ ...
'') of Albanazzo, Colleggiata (or Collegiata), Favarella,
Granieri
Granieri is a southern Italian village and hamlet (''frazione'') of Caltagirone (18 km far), a municipality in the province of Catania, Sicily. It has an altitude of 351 metres above sea level and a population of 400.
Cuisine
The village li ...
, Mulino Buongiovanni, Piano Carbone, Piano San Paolo, Rangasia, San Basilio – Casa Prete, San Mauro, Santo Pietro, Serra Fornazzo, Signore del Soccorso, Villa Gravina and Villa Grazia.
Main sights
A collection of ancient and modern pottery and terra-cotta, dating back to the
Magna Grecia
Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these ...
period, is available in the local Museum of Pottery, created in 1965.
The main landmark of the city is the 142-step monumental
Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte, built from 1608 in the old part of the town. The peculiarity is that each step is decorated with different hand-decorated ceramics, using styles and figures derived from the millennial tradition of pottery making. Once a year, on and around the day of the city's
patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
, (
St. James, 25 July), the staircase is illuminated with candles of different colours arranged in order to reconstruct an artistic drawing of several tens of meters.
Religious buildings include:
*''San Giuliano'': Cathedral of Norman origin, dedicated to St Julian, with a twentieth-century ''
art nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
'' façade by
Saverio Gulli.
*''
San Francesco di Paola'': Baroque church; the sacristy is in
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style, dating from before the 1693 earthquake.
*''San Francesco'': Church dedicated to St Francis of Assisi, built originally in 1236 and rebuilt in Baroque style after 1693. The façade has two orders with marine symbols and a statue of the ''Immaculate''. The dome is unfinished.
*''Chiesa del Gesù'': Church of Jesus, built by Jesuits. (1570). The façade has eight statues portraying saints and the ''Madonna with Child''. The interior, one a single nave, houses a ''Pietà'' by
Filippo Paladino
Filippo Paladino (1544 -1614) was an Italian painter.
Biography
He was born near Florence in Tuscany and remained there until circa 1586 when he was imprisoned and subsequently exiled to Malta. From there, he moved to Sicily where he was active ...
(1607) and ''Christ's Nativity'' by
Polidoro da Caravaggio
Polidoro Caldara, usually known as Polidoro da Caravaggio ( – 1543) was an Italian painter of the Mannerist period, "arguably the most gifted and certainly the least conventional of Raphael's pupils", who was best known for his now-vanished ...
.
*''
Santa Maria di Gesù'': adjacent to Franciscan convent, with ''Madonna'' statue by
Gagini
*''
Santa Maria del Monte'' (12th century).
* The Renaissance Church of the New Capuchins, in white stone, with a noteworthy treasure and a picture gallery.
*''
San Giacomo
*''
San Giorgio'' - church contains an altarpiece attributed to
Rogier van der Weyden
Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...
* Also noteworthy is the Palazzo Senatorio (15th century), the former Town Hall.
People
* Don
Luigi Sturzo
Luigi Sturzo (; 26 November 1871 – 8 August 1959) was an Italian Catholic priest and prominent politician. He was known in his lifetime as a "clerical socialist" and is considered one of the fathers of the Christian democratic platform. He w ...
(1871–1959), founder of the Italian People's Party (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
:
Partito Popolare Italiano, later
Democrazia Cristiana
Christian Democracy ( it, Democrazia Cristiana, DC) was a Christian democratic political party in Italy. The DC was founded on 15 December 1943 in the Italian Social Republic (Nazi-occupied Italy) as the ideal successor of the Italian People's ...
). It is one of the most important Italian statists and politician since the inception of the unitary State.
*
Mario Scelba
Mario Scelba (5 September 1901 – 29 October 1991) was an Italian politician who served as the 33rd prime minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955. A founder of the Christian Democracy, Scelba was one of the longest-serving Minister o ...
(1901–1991), Minister of the Interior and Prime Minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955.
*
Silvio Milazzo (1903–1982),
President of the Regional Government of Sicily in 1958–1960.
*
Vincent Drucci
Vincent Drucci (born Ludovico D'Ambrosio; January 1, 1898 – April 4, 1927), also known as "The Schemer", was an American mobster during Chicago's Prohibition era who was a member of the North Side Gang, Al Capone's best known rivals. A fri ...
(1898–1927),
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
North Side Gang
The North Side Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was an Irish-Polish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s. It was the principal rival of the South Side Gang, als ...
boss, born here in 1898.
*
Giuseppe Mascara
Giuseppe Mascara (; born 22 August 1979) is an Italian football coach and former player who played as a striker or a wide forward.
Club career
Ragusa
Mascara started out playing for the youth side of Sicilian amateurs Comiso before transfer ...
(1979–), football player, born here in 1979. He played in Serie A, Italian national team and UEFA Champions League.
Sister cities
*
Rijeka
Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Prim ...
, Croatia
*
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, USA
*
Arnsberg
Arnsberg (; wep, Arensperg) is a town in the Hochsauerland county, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Hochs ...
, Germany
See also
*
Sant'Ippolito (hill)
*
Diocese of Caltagirone
The Italian Catholic diocese of Caltagirone ( la, Dioecesis Calatayeronensis) is situated in the east of Sicily. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Catania. Since 20 March 2012 the bishop is Calogero Peri.
The diocese consists of fif ...
*
Caltagirone Ceramics
References
External links
Caltagirone official website
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the Metropolitan City of Catania
World Heritage Sites in Italy