In 1682 a landslide carried off the old town. The year after, the duke of Camastra, Giuseppe Lanza, obtained the king's licence to build it again, and called in the military engineer Carlos de Grunenbergh to design it: out came a plan shaped like a rhombus inscribed in a square.
The duke's name became the town's name too, which before was Santo Stefano di Mistretta. The ceramics, on the other hand, stayed: in the old cemetery, a hundred or so graves used between 1870 and 1880, you can count seventy-five kinds of tile, all different, and on the back of the loose ones, now in the museum of Palazzo Trabia, are the names of the potters of the day. There are 4,674 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
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Next up: Saint Nicholas of Bari, patron of a town born from a landslide, Sunday 6 December
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 88 km away
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📅 Every year, on 6 December
Santo Stefano di Camastra celebrates Saint Nicholas of Bari on 6 December; the town took its current name in honour of the Duke of Camastra, who promoted its rebuilding after the disastrous landslide of 1682.
Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo inside a golden cone-shaped crust: in Catania it is masculine and pointed, and the quarrel with Palermo over the name is serious.
Read more →A thin sheet of dough folded into a half-moon and fried, with escarole, tuma cheese, anchovies and black pepper inside: Messina’s street food, to eat hot straight from the rosticceria.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Santo Stefano di Camastra, but an easy day trip away.
