Ucria is a ''

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 ...

'' (municipality) 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 ...

in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

region

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. ...

, located about east of

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 ...

and about west of

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 is part of the Parco dei

Nebrodi The Nebrodi (; , ; ) is a mountain range that runs along the north east of Sicily. Together with the Madonie and the Peloritani, they form the Sicilian Apennines. The mountains run from the Peloritani on the eastern part of the island to the ...

Physical geography

Ucria is a small mountain town, between above sea level, in the

Mountains. It is the meeting point of three major thoroughfares: the State Road #116 (Capo d'Orlando - Randazzo), the Provincial Road #136 (San Piero Patti - Ucria), and the Provincial Road #139. The last of these passes through Sinagra on the way to the sea at Brolo. The Via Padre Bernardino (Strada Statale #116) bisects the town and provides a view of the surrounding mountains and the valley.

History

Prehistoric tools, close to the Rocca di San Marco, and a storage room of Roman coins in the locality Arelluso, have been found in the area. The origin of the town dates back to the

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

era, while the name is derived from either the Greek ''onchria'', meaning "rust of forage", or the Arabic ''kerya'', meaning "village". The town was annexed by

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

in 269 BC, until it was incorporated into 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 ...

in 242 BC. The two Saracen towers, one in the outskirts that was to serve as a lookout and one in the north of the town, show that the village already existed during the Islamic domination in Sicily, and that it represented a strategic location on the way to the sea. Since the year 1000, Ucria was dominated by a castle that, after the Christian conquest of the island, passed from one power to another, including 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 ...

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 dynast ...

, Angevin and Aragonese. In the Norman period, Ucria was a fiefdom of Abbo Barresi. In 1625, the Mother Church was built in Ucria and dedicated to

Saint Peter the Apostle Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the early Christian Church. He appears repe ...

. During Norman rule, the

feudal system Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring socie ...

was incorporated into the town; however, it was officially abolished with the Sicilian constitution of 1812. Some residents of Ucria immigrated to

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the Technological and industrial history of the United States, American Industrial Revoluti ...

, USA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Main sights

Religious architecture

* Mother Church "St. Peter the Apostle" * Church of the Virgin Mary * Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel * Church of the Madonna dell' Annunziata * Ruins of the Church of St. Maria Della Scala * Church of Our Lady of the Rosary * Church of St. Michael the Archangel

Museums

* Pedagogical Museum of Arts and Youth Creativity * Typological Museum of Traditional Arts of Sicily * Museo della Carta Pesta "Gianpistone" * Museum of the Nebrodis ethnohistorian "Antonino Gullotti" * Mosaic Nico Nicosia "Comparing the Two Worlds"

Living plant germplasm bank

The Germplasm Bank of Living Plants includes the adjacent Botanical Garden, dedicated to the botanist Bernardino da Ucria (1739 -1796). It houses a collection of plant species of therapeutic interest and a variety of seeds of traditional cultivars of endangered fruits. It also houses a biological laboratory working at the protection and multiplication of germplasm for the conservation of biodiversity.

Events

*Festival of S.S. Christ of Pity, patron saint of Ucria, taking place on 3 May, and September 14 *The Emigrant's Day, held on August 14. *Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, held on the last Saturday of September. *Feast of Our Lady S.S. del Rosario, held on the last Sunday of October. *Show and Festival of Mushroom, held on the last Sunday of October. *Show and Festival of Hazelnuts, held in the month of September.

People

* Bernardino Ucria (1739–1796) *

Antonino Pietro Gullotti Antonino Pietro Gullotti (14 January 1922 – 9 August 1989) was an Italian politician. Political career He was one of the founders of the Dorothean faction of Christian Democracy in 1958, he got closer and closer to Aldo Moro and Benigno Zacc ...

(1922–1989)

Twin Town

Gozzano, Italy Gozzano (; ) is a (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Novara. Gozzano borders the following municipalities: Bolzano Novarese, Borgomanero, Br ...

, since May 2014

References

External links

Official website

Ucria Genealogy Page
{{authority control Cities and towns in Sicily