This is the oldest square in Sciacca, and it changed its name twice over the twentieth century: first piazza del Popolo, then piazza San Domenico, and today piazza Scandaliato. Long before that it was a narrow pedestrian island, a small forecourt facing two medieval buildings, which grew over time into the city's gathering place.
What to see
The two buildings the square looks onto explain its medieval beginnings: the church of San Domenico and the former Jesuit convent, now Sciacca's town hall. Before the twentieth century there was only a small pedestrian space here, set above a ditch. Filling in that ditch is what widened the square: it was repaved, and a cramped opening in front of the churches became the meeting point for whole generations of local people. Walk across it today and you are standing on ground reclaimed from a hollow, which is why the whole space feels so broad and even.
Visiting
Under its current name, piazza Scandaliato, the square is still the cultural and performance heart of Sciacca. The two events that anchor the city's year take place here: the Carnival of Sciacca, one of the best known in Sicily, and the feast of the town's patron, the Madonna del Soccorso, with its procession. One thing is missing, though, and older residents remember it well: nearby stood the Politeama Mariano Rossi theatre, a piece of twentieth-century architecture that was pulled down to make a bus car park, which then sat unused. Rebuilt in a modern style, the square still fills up, above all in summer.
Our editors' tip
If you look for “piazza del Popolo” on a map or ask a passer-by, you may come up empty: to people in Sciacca it is piazza Scandaliato, and that is the name everyone uses. Time your visit for Carnival or the days of the Soccorso feast, when the square does again what it was built for, bringing the town together.