Around 1875 Baron Spitaleri had a building put up in the Solicchiata district, a few kilometres outside the town of Adrano, originally meant for farm use. It soon became one of the best-known wine operations on the slopes of Etna, producing the so-called Solicchiata wine, which in the end gave the whole complex its name.
What to see
Although it dates from the nineteenth century, the architecture looks squarely to the Middle Ages. The castle is built entirely of lava stone, the material that shapes the whole landscape at the foot of Etna, and it is ringed by a moat. Entry is over a drawbridge, a detail that reinforces the fortified-house character its owner was after. The medieval style and the dark stone give the building a stern look, far removed from an ordinary country house, and make it a landmark in the countryside around Adrano.
Our editors' tip
It helps to read the castle for what it really was: not a military stronghold but the centre of a wine estate founded in the late nineteenth century. The name of the district and of the wine place the visit within the story of Etna viticulture, which found one of its historic homes in these fields of lava stone. Coming from Adrano, take the country road slowly, to catch the contrast between the castle's dark stone and the cultivated land around it.