Torregrotta ( IPA: ; ''Turri'' in Sicilian) is an Italian town of 7,297 inhabitants 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. ...

. The town, located 44 meters above sea level in the , lies between the

Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (, ; or ) , , , , is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenians, Tyrrhenian people identified with the Etruscans of Italy. Geography The sea is bounded by the islands of C ...

and the first

Peloritani The Peloritani ( Sicilian: , ) are a mountain range of north-eastern Sicily, in southern Italy, extending for some from Capo Peloro to the Nebrodi Mountains. On the north and east they are bordered by the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas res ...

hills.. Initially built in medieval times as a hamlet of the fief of Santa Maria della Scala, after a period of abandonment,. it was rebuilt starting in 1526.. At the beginning of the 19th century it became a sub-municipality of Roccavaldina, from which it obtained administrative autonomy in 1923.. The 16th-century center expanded mainly from the second half of the 19th century onward.. A center historically linked to agriculture,.. the place of origin of the ,. it has lost its traditional agricultural role in favor of the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

.. The clay extraction and processing industry had a certain boost in the 20th century, but almost completely ceased to exist in the 2000s. Medium and small artisan businesses predominate.

Physical geography

Territory

The territory of Torregrotta is located along the northern coast of Sicily, in the , and extends south towards the foothills of the Peloritani Mountains.. With an area of 4.13 km², it is the second smallest municipality in the valley, preceded only by Valdina (2.60 km²), and one of the smallest in the metropolitan city of Messina. Its natural boundaries are the Caracciolo (east), Sottocatena (south), Bagheria (south-west), Lavina. (west) and

(north) streams; it also borders the following municipalities: Valdina to the east, Roccavaldina to the south,

Monforte San Giorgio Monforte San Giorgio ( Sicilian: ''Munforti'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about east of Palermo and about west of Messina. It is home to the remains of a castle bu ...

to the south and to the west. The administrative boundaries form a quadrilateral of approximately rectangular shape, measuring 3700 meters in latitude and 1150 meters in longitude.. Most of the land in Torregrotta, about 70%, is morphologically flat, with slopes that do not exceed 5%.. The plain, in addition to the coastal strip, extends inland as far as the Bagheria stream and constitutes the easternmost portion of the valley through which the Niceto river flows.. The hilly area, bordered to the east by the valley and to the west by the Caracciolo stream, is instead formed by the ridge that slopes down towards the coast and, in the central-northern sector, is characterized by several clay quarries that for a long time were used by the brick industry. The coastline extends for about 1200 meters and has low, sandy beaches. of varying appearance and extension over time.. The city extends across the plain, mainly in a latitudinal direction and without interruption, from the coast to the southern border, and transversally near the SS 113 highway. The altitude of the town, between 3 and 50 meters above sea level, is officially indicated as 44 meters above sea level because the town hall is at that altitude. The altitude range of the entire territory of Torregrotta varies from sea level to the highest hilltop, to the south-east of the town, at an altitude of 193 meters above sea level.

Hydrography

The valley in which Torregrotta is located is part of the river basin which is considered one of the main waterways of the Peloritani mountains for its historical and naturalistic value. However, the Niceto does not cross the municipal territory, flowing just beyond the western administrative border, a short distance from the town. To the east, beyond the hilly area, the soil is crossed by the Caracciolo stream which, throughout its course, only 4.9 km long, separates Torregrotta from the municipality of Valdina flowing into the

, and whose basin partly includes the territory of Torregrotta. Torregrotta landscape

In addition to the Caracciolo, there are several minor waterways that flow through the municipal area, including the Bagheria, the main tributary of the Niceto. and the territorial boundary with the municipality of

for about 600 meters. Tributaries of the Bagheria are the Sottocatena stream, which marks part of the border with the municipality of Roccavaldina, and the Granatara stream that flows near the Grotta district. All the aforementioned minor water bodies can be dry for most of the year as they are temporary streams depending on rainfall.. The Bagheria stream is an exception, which thanks to a complex

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

has a semi-permanent torrential hydrological regime, typical of rivers, with floods in the winter season and periods of low water or drought in the summer season. Torregrotta's major water resources are concentrated in the underground aquifers from which they are extracted through wells and drills to supply the municipal aqueduct and for the irrigation of agricultural fields.. The aquifer, which is directly fed by rainwater and water that has infiltrated down from the mountains, is characterized by the changing height of the average water level, which varies according to the local properties of the terrain, and can be found just below the surface or reach depths of several tens of meters. Furthermore, the aquifer system is isolated at the bottom by a layer of impermeable material composed of gray-blue clay. In summer, during the dry period of the streams, the groundwater rises spontaneously from the ground, forming several natural springs near the coast; in fact, as demonstrated by some studies, the rainfall that enriches the catchment basins, infiltrating the soil during the rainy season (September - February), takes about six months to reach the coastal plain. The phenomenon was known since Roman times, as told by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

: One of the springs is the source of the Lavina, a small stream that flows near the coast on the border with the municipality of Monforte San Giorgio. At the end of the 19th century, during the reclamation of the coastal area, most of the springs were channeled with ditches called saie, near which, until the last century, the folkloric rite of washing wool was carried out, which would then be used to make mattresses and household cushions.

Geology

The entire town is built on a layer of

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

alluvial deposits (recent floods) consisting of

clastic Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock. A clast is a fragment of geological detritus,Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak, p. G-3 chunks, and smaller grains of rock broken off other rocks by ...

sediments, in particular sands, often silty, with gravel and pebbles from

metamorphic rocks Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, caus ...

inside. Their formation is the result of the erosive action of present-day watercourses, which over time have transported and deposited downstream fragments of rock eroded in the mountains by exogenous agents. Recent floods have covered the entire flat area, with a variable thickness that can exceed even 30 meters. The topmost layer, about 1 meter thick, is made up of agricultural soil rich in humus, organic material and nutrients. The eastern part of the territory of Torregrotta is dominated by compact layers of blue-gray clay, sometimes more than 100 meters deep, with silty layers in between.. After the recent floods, these are the most common formation on the surface and are suitable for the production of bricks thanks to the good characteristics of the material. In 2001, during a geological survey of the clays in the Bottisco district, a fossil fragment of a

dwarf elephant Dwarf elephants are prehistoric members of the order Proboscidea which, through the process of allopatric speciation on islands, evolved much smaller body sizes (around shoulder height) in comparison with their immediate ancestors. Dwarf elephant ...

tusk was found, dating from the

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...

. In the hilly areas of the Maddalena district, alongside the clays, there are outcrops of calcarenites and organogenic sands with a yellowish-gray color that have cross-bedding and variable consistency. They also contain nannoflora and planktonic

foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...

. Clays and organogenic formations form the substrate for recent alluvial deposits and on the top of the hills they are intersected by marine terraces composed of silt, gravel and other aggregates of crystalline origin. In the southern part of the municipal territory, various geological formations emerge on the surface: close to the banks of the Caracciolo stream, there is a strip of rock formations composed of marly

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and calcareous

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

whose peculiar characteristic is the high number of cracks generally filled with

pelite A pelite () or metapelite is a metamorphism, metamorphosed fine-grained sedimentary rock, i.e. mudstone or siltstone. The term was earlier used by geologists to describe a clay-rich, fine-grained clastic sediment or sedimentary rock, i.e. mud or ...

. A short distance from the Grotta district, on the other hand, there are formations of whitish evaporitic limestone that rest on stratifications of sediments in which medium-sized

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

rocks alternate, sometimes dissolving into sands, and layers of clay.. The deepest geological formation, overlying all the previous ones, is represented by the

of the

Aspromonte The Aspromonte is a mountain massif in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria (Calabria, southern Italy). In Italian aspro means "rough" whereas in Greek it means "white" (wikt:άσπρος, Άσπρος), therefore the name literally translat ...

unit dominated by paragneiss. The riverbeds and beaches are formed by current floods, that is to say materials transported and deposited by the waters of the rivers or by the

waves United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve), better known as the WAVES (for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), was the women's branch of the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. It was established on July 21, 1942, ...

of the sea.. In the first case these are sediments formed by gravel and sand with pebbles and fragments of rock of different sizes; in the second case they are sandy deposits. The most recent geological formations are the screes that can be found in a limited portion of the hillside and are made up of sandy and silty materials.. In summary, the

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

of the subsoil in Torregrotta includes the following succession of geological structures: *

Scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. The term ''scree'' is ap ...

* Recent alluvial deposits (

) * Recent alluvial deposits (Holocene) * Marine terraces (Middle-Upper

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

) * Blue-gray clays (Upper

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Calcarenites and organogenic sands (Upper Pliocene - Middle Pleistocene) * ''Trubi'' (Lower Pliocene) * Evaporitic limestone (

Messinian The Messinian is in the geologic timescale the last age or uppermost stage of the Miocene. It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma and 5.333 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago). It follows the Tortonian and is followed by the Zanclean, the fir ...

) * Sandy-arenaceous-pebble alternation (

Tortonian The Tortonian is in the geologic time scale an age or stage of the late Miocene that spans the time between 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma and 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago). It follows the Serravallian and is followed by the Messinian. The Tort ...

) *

Metamorphic rocks Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, caus ...

- Aspromonte Unit ( Hercynian) From a tectonic point of view, the area where Torregrotta is located went through an initial phase of orogenic movements of the lower formations and, starting from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

, a process of land uplift. as witnessed by the marine terraces present on the hills. This led to the activation of erosive phenomena and the creation of extensional faults of which, however, there is no historical evidence of movement. The main earthquakes that have affected the city have always originated from the seismogenic sources of the Calabro-Peloritano Arc. According to the seismic classification of the Italian national territory, Torregrotta is classified as follows: * Zone 2 (medium seismicity), Prime Ministerial Decree no. 3274 of 20/03/2003

Climate

Torregrotta has a typical warm

temperate climate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ra ...

that alternates hot summers winters that are not excessively cold, with mild and comfortable intermediate seasons.. According to long-term surveys by the local meteorological station, the average annual temperature is around 18.0 °C; the coldest month is February, with an average temperature of 11.1 °C, and the hottest month is August, with an average temperature of 25.9 °C. In summer the temperature can exceed 40 °C, but in rare cases, and in winter it almost never drops below 0 °C.. Seasonal temperature variations are moderate, ranging between 6 °C and 8 °C. In Torregrotta, annual rainfall averages 946.3 mm and rarely turns into heavy rain or snowfall,. the last of which occurred on January 31, 1999 and, to a lesser extent, on December 31, 2014. The rainy season is between fall and the first part of spring; however, rainfall is irregular both in annual quantity and daily distribution, often characterized by high accumulations in a short period of time. Only 25-30% of the total annual rainfall falls in late spring and summer, which is the driest season. Torregrotta is often characterized by windy days during the calendar year. The mistral is the most frequent wind and in its most intense phases it is accompanied by violent sea storms. The libeccio and scirocco winds are also periodic. The Torregrotta weather station has been active since January 1, 2002 and is part of the SIAS network of the Sicilian Region and the SCIA SINAnet national network managed by ISPRA. According to the climatic classification of Italian municipalities, Torregrotta is classified as follows: * Climate zone: B; *

Degree days A degree day is a measure of heating or cooling. Total degree days from an appropriate starting date are used to plan the planting of crops and management of pest (animal), pests and pest control timing. Weekly or monthly degree-day figures may a ...

: 702.

Origin of the name

Historians agree that the

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

''Torregrotta'' is a combination of the words ''Torre'' (tower) and ''Grotta'' (cave), the two adjacent districts that form the historic center of the city. The origin of both terms can be traced back to the presence of two structures in the area, i.e. at least two towers (one of which is still present in Via Trieste) and several caves. What was initially the Hamlet of the Feud of Santa Maria della Scala (1526) took on the name Torre in the first half of the 19th century, as can be seen in two deeds dated 1815 and 1817. The adjacent district of Grotta, on the other hand, already existed in the 16th century, as attested by a notarial deed dated 1585.. The town acquired its current name around the middle of the 19th century; in fact, the first official documents in which the two words appear for the first time together in the place name ''Torre Grotta'' are the ''Dizionario Topografico della Sicilia'' (Topographical Dictionary of Sicily) by V. Amico from 1855 and a notarial deed dated October 13, 1857..

History

Ancient history

The absence of archaeological finds has not made it possible to clarify whether there was a permanent human settlement in the territory of Torregrotta during ancient history.. The most likely hypothesis among historians is that the area was initially inhabited by the

Sicani The Sicani or Sicanians were one of three ancient peoples of Sicily present at the time of Phoenician and Greek colonization. The Sicani dwelt east of the Elymians and west of the Sicels, having, according to Diodorus Siculus, the boundary with ...

and that the fertility of the soil, together with the abundance of water provided by the Niceto, favored human settlement in the

Hellenic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the Roma ...

with the formation of farming villages. Later, in

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

, the presence of at least one small town is considered highly probable because large estates were created and administered by a

tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...

or, according to a more recent theory, by some rich Romans. Torregrotta tunnel vico Cesare Battisti

Middle Ages

After the fall of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, the area around Torregrotta was occupied first by the

Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

and then by the Byzantines, who renamed it ''Casale del Conte''. The ''Casale'' was a small agricultural center razed to the ground by the Saracens around the year 870. The Arabs preferred to settle in what is today the Radali district. and during their domination, which lasted until the Norman conquest of 1061, the territory of Torregrotta was called ''Rachal Elmelum''. In March 1168, the Norman King William II and his mother, Margaret of Navarre, donated the ancient Byzantine hamlet to the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria della Scala in

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 ...

, creating the territorial entity that would go down in history as the fief of Santa Maria della Scala.. The latter included almost all of the territory of Torregrotta and part of that of Valdina. The concession was reconfirmed by Henry VI and Constance I, and then twice more, in 1209 and 1221, by the Swabian emperor Frederick II. During the

reign A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., King of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-princes of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kin ...

of the latter, the fief was usurped by the judge of Messina, Afranione de Porta, and later by other citizens of Messina, and only returned to the possession of the monastery in 1289 by virtue of a sentence issued by the

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the Pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title '' legatus'') is a personal representative of the Pope to foreign nations, to some other part of the Catho ...

in 1267. Starting from the plague wave of 1347, the hamlet of the feud of Santa Maria della Scala gradually began to depopulate, remaining abandoned until the 16th century. Meanwhile, in the 14th century, the Rocca feud (today Roccavaldina) had been created by the King of Sicily, Frederick III, which, incorporating the portion of land belonging to the town of Torre del Greco that until then had been included in the royal state property, had joined the Scala feud in the administration of the present territory..

Modern Age

In 1526, Emperor

Charles V Charles V may refer to: Kings and Emperors * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise Others * Charles V, Duke ...

issued a ''Licentia populandi'' authorizing the rebuilding and repopulation of the ancient ''Casale'' whose sixteenth-century nucleus grew and developed over the centuries, first being called ''Torre'' and then ''Torregrotta'', representing the origin of the present-day city. The rebirth of the hamlet marked the economic recovery of the entire fief of Santa Maria della Scala, whose management was entrusted by the Benedictine nuns to a lay procurator,. with the creation of various commercial and artisan structures, but above all with agricultural activity. The economic interests of the Scala fiefdom were intertwined with those of the Rocca land, which had been alternately governed by various feudal lords until 1509 when the fiefdom was purchased by the Spanish nobleman Andrea Valdina. The Valdina family governed the area until the first half of the 1700s, and this was Rocca's period of greatest splendor, above all thanks to the breeding of silkworms in the feud of Santa Maria della Scala that allowed the Valdina family to start a flourishing trade in silk products.. At the end of the 18th century, with the decline of the Valdina family, the Rocca fiefdom passed into the hands of various bourgeois families while the Scala fiefdom continued to be administered by procurators until 1812 when the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV abolished feudal privileges and therefore the fiefdoms. The fief of Roccavaldina was transformed into a municipality incorporating the municipality of Santa Maria della Scala with the hamlet “Torre” which became a sub-municipality of Rocca. Torregrotta old town 1

Contemporary era

In the second half of the 19th century, the land belonging to the monastery of Santa Maria della Scala in the former fiefdom of the same name was confiscated by the Italian State, divided into lots and sold by public auction... The new owners, who formed a small and influential bourgeois class,. improved agricultural exploitation and reclaimed the coastal area. At the beginning of the 20th century Torregrotta had become the center of the municipality's productive activities, also thanks to the construction of the local railway station,.. and in 1920 it surpassed Roccavaldina also in terms of number of inhabitants. The population of Torregrotta felt that Roccavaldina was a foreign and detached place and the desire for greater autonomy manifested itself in requests of a religious nature.. These requests were immediately opposed by the clergy of Rocca, who were intimidated by the emancipation of the people of Torregrotta rather than by a convinced religious intransigence, and had no substantial effect until 1921 when the church of San Paolino was elevated to the status of parish church.. The climate of tension between the two communities was at its height during the “war of the burials”. that had broken out when the people of Torregrotta, at night, began to dig up their dead from the Roccavaldina cemetery to transfer them to Torregrotta. In the meantime, the Torregrotta bourgeoisie, who wanted to strengthen their hegemony within the local community by exploiting both their considerable economic power and the Torregrotta people's aversion to Roccavaldina,. took advantage of a period of political and administrative crisis in the municipal government of Roccavaldina and, thanks to the support of various political figures, managed to obtain the autonomy of Torregrotta from Roccavaldina on October 21, 1923.

Symbols

The city's coat of arms and banner, approved by city council resolution no. 84 of November 11, 1977, were officially granted by decree of the President of the Republic on March 15, 1978.. The blazon, as reported in the Presidential Decree of concession, is as follows: Torregrotta via XXI ottobre roundabout

The coat of arms of Torregrotta is the figurative emblem of the city's rural origins, symbolizing in the four predominant figures — grapes, ears of wheat, olive trees and sheep — the products linked to agriculture and livestock breeding that for a long time constituted the main source of prosperity for the people of Torregrotta. The figurative synthesis of the historical events of the territory of Torregrotta in Sicily is instead outlined in the historical coat of arms of the city proposed by a group of scholars in 1993 with the following blazon: The symbolism used represents the fief of Santa Maria della Scala in the Marian icon and the Valdina family in the tower, which is a reference to the building from which the place name originated. The juxtaposition of the two figures also represents the uniqueness of the present-day city.

Monuments and places of interest

Religious architecture

* ''Church of San Paolino Vescovo''. Inaugurated on June 29, 1943 in Via Mezzasalma, it houses a canvas from 1671 attributed to Francesco Iaconissa depicting the

Deposition of Christ The Descent from the Cross (, ''Apokathelosis''), or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after his crucifixion (John 19, ). I ...

from the Cross that originally adorned the altar of the ancient church of San Paolino, formerly the church of Maria SS. della Pietà.. A bell from 1886 that still works is also from this church, which has since been demolished.. In 2010 the church was renovated and a stained glass window depicting St. Paulinus was placed on the façade. * ''Church of Santa Maria della Scala''. Opened to the faithful on April 10, 1976, it stands in the square of the same name and was dedicated on October 10 of the same year. The church is part of the centuries-old cult of the Virgin of the Staircase, whose ancient religious temple is believed to have been located in the historic center. * ''Church of the Holy Crucifix''. It was consecrated and opened for worship on January 22, 1925, on the occasion of the inauguration of the institute Daughters of Divine Zeal, of which it was part.. In the seventies it underwent a major renovation with the addition of a further section and the replacement of the wooden roof with a reinforced concrete ceiling.. Inside there are four wooden statues, including that of Our Lady of Tindari from 1925. * ''Church of San Cristoforo''. The period of construction is uncertain, but it probably has Byzantine origins. Notarial deeds indicate that it has been active since at least the beginning of the 19th century.. Only the perimeter walls along Via San Vito remain. Torregrotta arco merlato

Civil architecture

* ''Castrum Tower''. Dating from between the 16th and 17th centuries,. it was one of the defensive works of the ''

Castrum ''Castra'' () is a Latin language, Latin term used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire for a military 'camp', and ''castrum'' () for a 'Fortification, fort'. Either could refer to a building or plot of land, used as a fortified milita ...

'' built by Emperor

to protect the peasants who lived in the hamlet of the Feud of Santa Maria della Scala. Over time it has undergone several modifications and alterations and today it is incorporated into houses from later periods along Vico Trieste. * ''Crenellated arch''. It was one of the entrance portals to the sixteenth century ''Castrum'' built by Emperor Charles V. However, it was built later, as the numbers 6 5 0 are still visible on the internal keystone, and can therefore be dated to 1650. The portal consists of a round arch surmounted by merlons. It is located on the edge of Via Mezzasalma.

Other

* ''Monument to the fallen''. Inaugurated on September 7, 1919. in memory of the soldiers from Torregrotta who fell in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, it is among the oldest in Italy and the first to be erected in Sicily. Made entirely of white marble, it consists of a square-based lower part on which four commemorative inscriptions are placed, and an upper part in the shape of an obelisk. Torregrotta war memorial detail

* ''Statue of St. Pio of Pietrelcina''. Made entirely of bronze by the artist Prof. Giovanni De Pasquale, it was inaugurated on August 12, 2001 in the current Piazza Unità d'Italia. * ''The Valdina family crest''. Located at the edge of Via Mezzasalma, according to historians it was originally on the facade of a 16th century building that no longer exists.. The coat of arms is carved on a white marble slab and has the typical shape of a quartered Sicilian shield.. Three of the four parts that make it up are similar to those of the coat of arms carved on the tomb of Andrea Valdina in the mother church of Roccavaldina. To the left of the shield the numbers 1 and 5 are engraved and it can therefore be dated to the second half of the 16th century. * ''Icons depicting the Madonna della Scala''. Carved on sandstone slabs 33 cm wide and 45 cm high,. they were used to mark the boundaries of the ancient fiefdom of Santa Maria della Scala.. Of the seven supposed icons, only four remain today: two in the territory of Torregrotta, in Via dei Mille and in the Largari district, and two in the territory of Valdina. * Rock cave. It is located near Via San Vito. and is part of a series of caves located between Torregrotta and the hamlet of Cardà in the municipality of Roccavaldina..

Buildings that no longer exist

* ''Church of Maria Santissima della Pietà''. It was built in the second half of the 17th century. In the 19th century it became the center of the religious question in Torregrotta and was dedicated to Saint Paulinus. The building, in a state of abandonment, was demolished in the mid-20th century. Torregrotta Holy Cross Church

* ''Church of Saint Mary Magdalene''. It stood in the district of the same name along the ancient Via Maddalena and only a small portion of the perimeter wall remains.. The place of worship and the agricultural complex that surrounded it were already active at the end of the 16th century, as from 1584 there are records of commercial exchanges of livestock and textiles on the occasion of the feast of

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

.. The church, whose function is known to have continued until at least 1834,. was demolished around the middle of the 20th century during construction work on provincial road no. 59, while the reason for the demolition of the agricultural structures is unknown. * ''14th century church''. Along Vico Trieste, incorporated into a ruined 18th century building, there were traces of a 14th century church of unknown dedication. According to historians' hypotheses, it could be the ancient religious temple dedicated to Santa Maria della Scala. * ''Riposto della Torre''. Also called ''magazzinazzu'', it was a building that belonged to the ancient fiefdom of Santa Maria della Scala that stood on Via XXI Ottobre near the war memorial and was demolished between October 1954 and March 1955. Under the rose window of the main facade there was a large marble icon depicting the Madonna della Scala and a plaque with a Latin inscription which, according to historians, was the concession of the King of Sicily William II in 1168. * ''Towers''. One stood along Via Libertà, the other near Piazza Santa Maria della Scala, an integral part of an ancient warehouse..

Society

Demographic evolution

The size of the population of Torregrotta in the historical periods prior to

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

is unknown. Almost certainly the territory of Torregrotta was inhabited since

undergoing a process of depopulation starting from the late Middle Ages and becoming populated again in the 16th century thanks to the rebirth of the ''Casale'', the 16th century nucleus of the present-day city. During the 19th century Torregrotta was affected by migratory phenomena that increased the population, which consisted of about 400 inhabitants in 1852. All the census surveys carried out by ISTAT (the Italian National Institute of Statistics) have shown a continuous growth in the number of people from Torregrotta. with significant relative percentage variations,. especially in the years between the 1971 and 1991 censuses. This demographic development was largely determined, especially in the 1970s, by the broader phenomenon of migratory flows from mountain municipalities to coastal centers, involving entire families and resulting in a prevalence over other provincial locations due to a series of factors:. * The birth and development of the nearby industrial center of Mela; * The city's central geographic location in the Tyrrhenian coastal area of north-eastern Sicily; * Good accessibility to other larger provincial towns. Starting from the 2000s, the reduction in migration from the mountains to the coast has been compensated by immigration from abroad and by the positive trend in annual natural balances. As of December 31, 2019, Torregrotta is the 12th most populous municipality in the province of Messina, the first most densely populated municipality in the province, confirming its role as a center of attraction for the population, and the third municipality with the highest birth rate in the province.

Ethnic groups and foreign minorities

The foreign population is very limited but has been constantly increasing over the years. As of December 31, 2018, there were 279 immigrants legally residing in Torregrotta, equal to 3.8% of the entire population and an increase of 16 individuals compared to 2017. The most numerous nationalities are: *

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

– 172 *

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

– 31 *

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

- 21

Saint Roch Confraternity vexillum Torregrotta

Religion

The majority of the population, as in the rest of Italy, profess the Catholic Christian religion and belong to the two parishes into which the municipal territory is divided, both belonging to the Archdiocese of Messina-Lipari-Santa Lucia del Mela; the oldest parish, dedicated to St. Paulinus, was canonically established in 1921 while the one dedicated to Santa Maria della Scala was created in 1965. From 1925 to 2015 there was a religious institute in the city belonging to the congregation of the ''Figlie del Divino Zelo'' (Daughters of Divine Zeal) whose nuns were mainly dedicated to promoting religious vocations and the Christian education of children in the kindergarten attached to the institute's premises. All the religious traditions of the city of Torregrotta are handed down by the Confraternity of San Rocco. which, founded in 1828,. is the only confraternity left after the dissolution, in the 1940s, of that of San Giuseppe. Among the main cults practiced there is that of St. Paulinus, patron saint of the city, and that of Our Lady of the Stairs, dating back to the 12th century. Other important cults are that of St. Roch, one of the oldest, and of St. Anthony, whose veneration was spread among the population by the Daughters of Divine Zeal.

Culture

Education

Torregrotta is home to several state schools: three kindergartens, three primary schools and a lower secondary school, all part of the local comprehensive institute. Until 2015 there were also two state-recognized private schools in the city: a secondary school (''Liceo socio-psicopedagogico'') and a kindergarten that was part of the former “''Figlie del Divino Zelo''” Institute. The municipal library has a collection of 1,846 books, mainly of a literary and geographical nature. In May 2010 it was transferred to the new headquarters at the Service Center where exhibitions and evening courses are also periodically held.

Media

The city is home to the editorial offices and studios of the television channel Telespazio Sicilia. The digital radio station Radio Strega also broadcasts from Torregrotta.

Anthropic geography

Town planning

Torregrotta largo Impastato lungomare Livatino 2024

The historical urban layout, the result of the transformations of the city starting from 1526, was constituted in 1930 by a square, seven streets and ten alleys. During the second half of the twentieth century, the urban fabric developed according to the provisions of the Building Program approved in 1974 which envisaged the residential and road expansion of the city along two main axes, Via XXI Ottobre and Viale Europa, and from Via Nazionale towards the coast with a network of new roads. From 2020 the territory of Torregrotta is governed by the municipal general development plan which provides for the expansion of the city with tourist, commercial and executive centers and the redevelopment of the existing residential fabric. Unit of Italy square Torregrotta

Historical subdivisions

The city center is traditionally divided into four main areas corresponding to as many districts which, however, have no legal status: (in alphabetical order) * Crociere:. it is the area of the city that extends close to and around Via Crocieri. The name of the latter derives from the fact that it forms a cross with Via XXI Ottobre and was originally referred to as Crociera Street.. * Grotta: it is one of the two districts that make up the historic center. It appears in various documents as early as the 16th century and then during the 19th century. * Scala: this is the area of the city that extends roughly between Via Nazionale and the Rosario Livatino seafront and is mentioned as a rural district from the first half of the nineteenth century.. In the 16th century there was a '' fondaco'' (a building similar to a modern motel) here that belonged to the fiefdom of Santa Maria della Scala and for this reason it was called the Fondaco della Scala. * Torre: until the beginning of the 19th century the district was called ''Casale'' and was the inhabited center of the fiefdom of Santa Maria della Scala. Already present in the Middle Ages and then rebuilt in 1526, it constitutes the historical center of the city. There are several other districts, both urban and rural, sometimes included within the four mentioned above, whose historical memory, in most cases, has been lost: Badessa, Barone, Bottisco, Bruca, Cotugnara, Ficarotta, Granatara, Largari, Maddalena, Marsilio, Perara, Pirrera, Radali, Sciabecco, Timoniere, Triari.

Economy

Agriculture

Historically, agriculture has played a dominant role in the economy of Torregrotta. Since the Middle Ages, activities related to the land have been the main source of livelihood for the people of Torregrotta,. who were associated with a purely agricultural community that is also reflected in the municipal coat of arms. However, during the 20th century agriculture declined substantially in favor of industry and, above all, the tertiary sector. In fact, in the 2001 census, agricultural activity constituted only 7% of the workforce in Torregrotta and absorbed about 2% of the resident labor force. The utilized agricultural area also decreased from 264.03 hectares in 1970 to 191.33 hectares in 2010, corresponding to 46.3% of the entire municipal territory and divided into 101 farms. The latter are mainly small to medium-sized,. in most cases they are managed by direct growers and use traditional cultivation techniques.. This is due to the high level of subdivision of agricultural land, typical of the entire provincial context, which limits the use of agricultural mechanization. The main sector of agriculture in Torregrotta is

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

, with a production area equal to 37% of the UAA. During the calendar year, tomato and eggplant plantations alternate with the cultivation of early potatoes (''Sieglinde''

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

), which over the course of the last century has become the leading crop in terms of quantity produced. In addition to local sales, it is exported to German markets, despite the fact that a prolonged crisis in the sector and the low returns have reduced the cultivated area at the end of the 20th century in favor of other vegetables. Vineyard Torregrotta

Among the other agricultural products of Torregrotta, the ''smergia'' (a type of nectarine) plays an important role, as it is a peculiar type of nectarine, typical of the Niceto valley, whose organoleptic properties distinguish it from other peaches. Nevertheless, the cultivation of nectarines is very limited, representing only 8% of the UAA, and its commercial distribution is restricted to the markets of the provinces of

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

and

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria (; ), commonly and officially referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the List of cities in Italy, largest city in Calabria as well as the seat of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. As ...

. The most widespread crop, which is concentrated in the hilly areas, is the olive tree (24.1% of the UAA), of the ''Ogliarola Messinese'' and ''Nocellara Messinese'' varieties.. The resulting oil production is not put on the market but is almost always destined for self-consumption by the olive growers. The citrus sector, which accounts for 22.2% of the total UAA,. is composed of ''Femminello'' and ''Interdonato'' lemons, ''Tarocco'' oranges and mandarins, whose production, together with the previous ones, is mainly sent to industries for processing into juices and derivatives. Wine growing is limited, and carried out with grapes of the '' Nerello mascalese'' and '' Nero d'Avola'' varieties. The Mamertino

DOC DOC, Doc, doc or DoC may refer to: People and characters * Doc, an abbreviation of doctor * Doc (nickname) * Doc (mascot), the Towson University mascot Persons * The D.O.C., American rapper (born 1968) * Doc Gallows (born 1983), ring nam ...

is produced from the latter variety. Since the early 2000s, new experimental agricultural products have been added to the traditional crops of the Torregrotta area, including mango and asparagus.

Industry and handicrafts

The first industrial plants in Torregrotta were established starting in 1935, when a process of industrialization progressively involved all the activities connected to the production of bricks that had begun at the beginning of the century. The brick industry reached its maximum expansion in the seventies, guaranteeing a high level of employment, and then rapidly contracted in the 2000s with the closure of almost all the factories. This was caused both by the decrease in demand for construction products and by the depletion of the historic clay quarries. Other industrial initiatives arose in the 1950s in the wine and dairy sectors; the latter remained active until the end of the 2000s. Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the closure of the larger factories, the secondary sector in Torregrotta has essentially consisted of small and medium-sized artisanal businesses, operating mainly in the construction and manufacturing sectors,. and represents about 33% of the workforce in Torregrotta. The workshops and factories are located in the two production centers of Torregrotta:. The first, of modest dimensions, is located to the north-west of the town; the second, which also includes the old industrial factories and disused clay quarries, extends into the central-eastern sector of the municipal territory, straddling the A20 motorway and the railway line.

Tertiary sector

Since the 1990s, the

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

has become the most important sector of the economy of Torregrotta, accounting for about 60% of the city's employment.. The main sectors are wholesale and retail trade, public administration and education, health and social services, communications, transportation and warehousing. There are also some activities, albeit very limited, such as real estate, renting, IT and research, monetary and financial intermediation, and activities linked to tourism. The coastal area is very lively, and in recent years has attracted interest from both locals and tourists, so much so that in 2023 Torregrotta was included in the list of tourist municipalities in

. Furthermore, since 2020, with the approval of the municipal General Regulatory Plan, new urban areas have been included both for the realization of activities related to tourism and for the commercial expansion of medium and large-scale distribution and office space.

Infrastructure and transportation

Roads

All the major roads of the Sicilian Tyrrhenian backbone cross through Torregrotta. The A20 Messina-Palermo highway crosses the municipal territory, running on an embankment and passing over several city streets via an overpass. State road 113 Settentrionale Sicula also passes through the center of Torregrotta and is the main road connecting the town to the neighboring coastal centers and the nearest highway junctions. Another major road is the ASI road (

Milazzo Milazzo (; ; ) is a municipality () in the Metropolitan City of Messina, Sicily, southern Italy. It is the largest municipality in the Metropolitan City after Messina and Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto. The town has a population of around 31,500 inh ...

- Torregrotta), which branches off near the Milazzo highway junction, crosses the Mela industrial area and ends in Torregrotta. Several provincial roads that pass through the municipality connect it with the surrounding hill towns: provincial road 59 connects Torregrotta to Roccavaldina, while 60 leads to

a few kilometers further on..

Railways

Torregrotta has a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

on the Palermo-Messina line. The station was opened to passenger traffic in 2009 on the new double track line that replaced the old single track line in the same year. In fact, until August 8, 2009, the service was provided from the historic railway station, which is now used for social purposes. The new station, which is located close to the A20 motorway, only provides passenger services and is a stop for most of the regional trains running on the line, providing connections to the provincial capital and the main towns on the Sicilian Tyrrhenian coast. It also serves several villages in the district of Torregrotta to which it is also connected by two bus routes.

Urban transportation

There is no public transportation in Torregrotta. However, the city is served by several private bus lines that connect it with neighboring towns and the main localities in the

province of Messina The province of Messina (; ) was a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. Its capital was the city of Messina. It was replaced by the Metropolitan City of Messina. Geography Territory It had an area of , ...

. Until 1928 the Messina-Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto suburban tram line was active, which also had a passenger stop in Torregrotta, at km 43, near the present-day intersection of Via Nazionale and Via XXI Ottobre.

Administration

The municipal authority of Torregrotta was established on October 21, 1923 with Royal Decree No. 2333. The first form of municipal government in Torregrotta therefore dates back to the Fascist period, during which, with the promulgation of law nº 237 of February 4, 1926 (“Establishment of the Podestà and the Municipal Council in municipalities with a population not exceeding 5,000 inhabitants”), the functions previously carried out by mayors, municipal councils and town councils were transferred to the

podestà (), also potestate or podesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of central and northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a c ...

.. The first podestà of Torregrotta, appointed by Royal Decree on July 8, 1926, was Pietro Mezzasalma, who set the administrative machine of Torregrotta in motion by appointing the town clerk and other municipal employees and approving various regulations and measures. In fact, in the three years following the granting of autonomy, Torregrotta did not have its own municipal administration, but rather the prefectural commissioners of Roccavaldina also managed the new municipality. After the fall of fascism, in October 1943 the prefect appointed the first mayor of Torregrotta: Gaetano Mezzasalma. In October 1946, thanks to the legislative decree nº1 of January 7, 1946 (“Reconstitution of the municipal administrations on an elective basis”), the administrative elections were held and the first City Council of Torregrotta was elected, composed of 15 councilors. The Council in turn appointed Giuseppe Saladino as Mayor, who was therefore the first elected mayor of Torregrotta. In November 1964 Anna Scalia was elected, the first woman mayor of Torregrotta and widow of the mayor Giovanni Tripoli, who died suddenly on October 11, 1964. With Regional Law No. 7 of August 26, 1992, which anticipated State Law No. 81 of March 25, 1993 (“Direct election of the mayor, the provincial president, the municipal council and the provincial council”), the direct election of the mayor by the citizens was introduced.. At the same time, this measure modified another important aspect of the municipal administration: the appointment of the council that was previously elected by the municipal council was now appointed directly by the mayor. As for the municipal offices, in the first years of the organization's existence, the offices were housed in rented premises. On August 25, 1929, the foundation stone was laid for the construction of the current town hall, which was completed during the administration of the podestà Coppolino.

Other administrative information

Torregrotta was the first municipality in the

to establish a register of civil unions with resolution of the City Council no. 36 of September 14, 2012. As of December 31, 2013, there were 6,733 citizens with the right to vote, of whom 3,216 were men and 3,517 women, divided into 8 electoral sections. The municipality of Torregrotta is part of the following supra-municipal organizations: agricultural region no. 9 (Coastal hills of Milazzo).

Sports

In soccer, the biggest local club, founded in 1973, is A.S.D. Torregrotta, which plays in the

Prima Categoria The Prima Categoria is the seventh level (since 2014–15) in the Italian football league system and is organized by the National Amateur League by the Regional Committees. Each individual league winner within the Prima Categoria level progress ...

league. In its history it reached the

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football.Official ...

league in the 2002-03 season and won a cup in its league, the “Tonino Caltagirone” Trophy of the Prima Categoria, in the 1997-98 season. The main activity of Torregrotta soccer is carried out in the youth sector whose soccer school is recognized as “elite” level by the

FIGC The Italian Football Federation (, ; FIGC ), known colloquially as (), is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It manages and coordinates the Italian football l ...

. In women's soccer, for the short period of three consecutive seasons, the S.S.F. Torregrotta club was active and played in two

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

tournaments and one Serie B tournament. In volleyball, the New Volley Team Torregrotta plays in the women's Serie D championship and also organizes activities for young people. Several clubs practice athletics: * the A.S.D. G.S. Indomita, founded in 1953, is the oldest sports club in Torregrotta. In 1988 it received the Bronze Star for Sporting Merit from CONI and in 1995 the Golden Discobolus for merit awarded by the Italian Sports Center. Throughout its history, the club has also branched out into other disciplines and organized various sporting events. * The ASD Meeting Sporting Club Runner, founded in 2015, is mainly active in running and organizes a national race every year. * The A.S.D. Club Atletica Torrese, a club active from 1986 to 2013 that was mainly active in the women's sector. There are also various amateur sports clubs for

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

and

dancesport Dancesport is competitive ballroom dancing, as contrasted to social or exhibition dancing. In the case of Para dancesport, at least one of the dancers is in a wheelchair. Dancesport events are sanctioned and regulated by dancesport organizat ...

. Two motorsport events are held in Torregrotta: the Torregrotta - Roccavaldina Slalom, an autoslalom race included in the Italian Slalom Championship calendar, and the Tyrrhenian Rally, a race valid for the Italian Rally Cup, which includes nine special stages, three of which are along provincial road no. 59 that connects Torregrotta to Roccavaldina.

Sports facilities

The following sports facilities are located in Torregrotta: *The Municipal Stadium for soccer, built in the 1980s and named after Pietro Gangemi in 2016, has a capacity of 1,500 spectators and is equipped with a synthetic turf field and artificial lighting. The facility is used for home games of local soccer clubs as well as clubs from neighboring towns that do not have a suitable field. In 2007 it hosted the match between the under-18 national teams of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

for the 1st Mediterranean Tournament. *

Geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The rigid triangular elements of the dome distribute stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy ...

: inaugurated on May 26, 2023, it is a multi-purpose sports facility. It hosts the activities and internal competitions of the New Volley Team Torregrotta.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Official website
{{authority control Cities and towns in Sicily Municipalities of the Metropolitan City of Messina