On 20 January 1893, in the days of the Sicilian fasci, five hundred peasants symbolically occupied the common land they said was theirs. Soldiers and carabinieri broke them up with gunfire: thirteen dead and twenty-one wounded, one of the harshest episodes of that season.
The name probably comes from the Arabic qal'at, fortress, and the Sicilian vuturu, vulture: the arms indeed show a medieval tower with a vulture perched on a merlon, and griffon vultures still fly over these mountains. The town lies below the Rocca di Sciara, and above it stand the ruins of the castle of Terravecchia, where the first settlement was before people began coming down to the valley in 1550. There are 4,171 residents.
Sfincione · Arancina · Pasta alla Norma
Compare hotels, B&Bs and holiday homes on Booking.com for your dates.
Next up: Our Lady of Help, patron of a cult born in Palermo in 1306, Friday 10 September
Nearest airport: Palermo Falcone-Borsellino, 80 km away
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 10 September
Caltavuturo celebrates Our Lady of Help on 10 September; the cult of the Virgin of Help was born in Palermo in 1306, and in Italy Caltavuturo is today one of the few cities, along with Sciacca and Montalcino, that venerate her as patron.
Tall, soft bread dough, tomato, onion, anchovies, oregano and caciocavallo: sfincione is Palermo's focaccia, cut into squares.
Read more →Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo cheese inside a golden crust. Round and feminine in Palermo, pointed and called arancino in Catania: the quarrel is serious.
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 Caltavuturo, but an easy day trip away.
