Castroreale ( Sicilian: ''Castruriali'') is a village in the

Metropolitan City of Messina The Metropolitan City of Messina () is a metropolitan city in Sicily, Italy. Its capital is the city of Messina. It replaced the province of Messina and comprises Messina and 107 other ''comuni'' (: ''comune''). It has 595,948 inhabitants as o ...

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. ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is one of

I Borghi più belli d'Italia () is a non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest, that was founded in March 2001 on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities, with the a ...

("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). It has around 2,702 inhabitants but over 80 churches, with some houses dating to the 13th century. It is from Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto and from

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

. It has a tower, last remain of a castle, built by

Frederick II of Aragon Frederick III (also Frederick II, ', ', '); 13 December 1272 – 25 June 1337) was the regent of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1291 until 1295 and subsequently King of Sicily from 1295 until his death. He was the third son of Peter III of Arag ...

in 1324. The name Castroreale comes from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, and means "royal fortress".

People

Antonino Borzì Antonino Borzì (20 August 1852, in Castroreale – 24 August 1921, in Lucca) was an Italian botanist. Life and career Antonino Borzì became a professor of botany at the University of Palermo in 1879 and at the University of Messina in 189 ...

* Giuseppina Vadalà *

Pina Menichelli Giuseppa Iolanda Menichelli (10 January 1890 – 29 August 1984), known professionally as Pina Menichelli, was an Italian actress. After a career in theatre and a series of small film roles, Menichelli was launched as a film star when Giovanni Pa ...

(1890–1984)

Sources

Municipalities of the Metropolitan City of Messina Borghi più belli d'Italia {{Sicily-geo-stub