Caccamo ( Sicilian: ''Càccamu'') is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' located on the Tyrrhenian coast of

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

in the

Metropolitan City of Palermo The Metropolitan City of Palermo (; ) is a metropolitan city in Sicily, Italy. Its capital is the city of Palermo. It replaced the province of Palermo and comprises the city of Palermo and 82 other ''comuni'' (: ''comune''). It has 1,194,439 in ...

History

The official founding of Caccamo was not until 1093, when the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

started to build the castle on a rocky spur overlooking a cliff, Castello di Caccamo. The castle itself is actually now being slowly converted into a museum. On the ground level of the castle is a restaurant "A Castellana". Submerged within the Rosamarina lake is a stone bridge built in 1307 on the road that once linked the town with

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. The city contains an attractive 11th-century

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

, which was remodeled in 1477 and 1614. On the side of the cathedral are two churches. The Chiesa dell'Anime del Purgatorio ''(Church of the Souls of Purgatory)'' features some

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

work in the eastern end and an 18th-century organ. In the downstairs are

catacombs Catacombs are man-made underground passages primarily used for religious purposes, particularly for burial. Any chamber used as a burial place is considered a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Etym ...

where the skeletons of a number of townspeople lie in niches along the wall, a burial practice that lasted from the 17th century up to 1863. Since the 1950s the town itself has lost almost half of its inhabitants to emigration. Caccamo holds some great views of the surrounding countryside, including the Rosmarina artificial lake, which was created by a controversial dam built in 1993.

Notable people from Caccamo

* Giovanni "John" Stanfa, Italian-American mobster (former boss of

Philadelphia crime family The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Bruno–Scarfo crime family,< ...

) and uncle of Antonino Giuffrè. * Antonino "Nino" Giuffrè, Italian mobster ( high-ranking member of Corleonesi) and nephew of John Stanfa.

References

External links

Caccamo page on netgalaxy.it
(in Italian)
Caccamo page on sicilyweb.com
(in Italian)

City of Caccamo web site Reference

Sito Fotografico Caccamo

Municipalities of the Metropolitan City of Palermo {{sicily-geo-stub