The patroness of Racalmuto is Saint Rosalia, celebrated on 4 September. The town developed as a settlement around the Chiaramonte Castle during the Norman conquest; Frederick of Aragon later transferred ownership of the castle and the surrounding fief to Frederick II Chiaramonte, who made it imposing, before it belonged to Andrea Chiaramonte, beheaded in Palermo in 1392, and to various other families, including the Moncada and the princes of Giardina di Ficarazzi. In 1503 a religious event shook the town's life, the coming of the Madonna del Monte, a Marian tradition that has remained dear to the faithful: until 1576 Racalmuto was a baronial domain, later becoming a county, and by the end of the 16th century it had over 4,000 inhabitants.
Racalmuto was the birthplace of the writer Leonardo Sciascia, to whom a foundation is now dedicated, housed in a former Enel power plant from the 1920s, which holds his significant correspondence and about 2,000 volumes from his library. The Teatro Regina Margherita, whose construction was decided in 1870 and entrusted to architect Dionisio Sciascia, stands in the garden of the former monastery of Santa Chiara and is embellished with stuccowork by Giuseppe Carta.
