The patrons of Francavilla di Sicilia are Saint Barbara, celebrated on 4 December, and Saint Euplius of Catania, on the last Sunday of August. A local legend has it that the town owes its name to a certain Franca, a handmaid who had to keep watch waiting for the return of a mysterious "Dolphin"; the real history, as scholarly tradition itself notes, is quite different, rooted instead in the Middle Ages.
Medieval Francavilla developed between the years 1000 and 1100 around the castle and along its slopes, probably contemporary with the restoration of the abbey of San Salvatore della Placa; the stronghold, today reduced to ruins on a hill three kilometres from the Placa, in a strategic position and perhaps originally defended by a triple ring of walls, does not appear among Sicily's surveyed castles despite having been the setting of historical events of significance beyond the local area. Two churches once guarded its slopes, that of San Teodoro to the east and that of San Giorgio to the west.
