The town was started by a Genoese of Armenian origin, Leonello Lercaro, who came to Sicily in 1570 to seek his fortune: his family were Catholics of the Greek rite, and between 1573 and 1580 he had a church built here to Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the saint who converted Armenia.
The licence to settle came on 22 September 1595, to his daughter's husband, Baldassarre Gomez de Amezcua. Then, from 1828, came sulphur: Lercara was the only mining town in the Palermo area, and its history from then on is the history of the mines — the boom, the crisis of 1893, the Sicilian Fasci with eleven dead on Christmas Day. There are 6,935 residents.
Sfincione · Arancina · Pasta alla Norma
Compare hotels, B&Bs and holiday homes on Booking.com for your dates.
Next up: Mary Most Holy of Constantinople, the patroness found by an eleven-year-old in 1807, Thursday 19 August
Nearest airport: Palermo Falcone-Borsellino, 65 km away
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, from 19 to 21 August
Lercara Friddi celebrates Mary Most Holy of Constantinople from 19 to 21 August: her icon, dated 1734, was found outdoors near a stream by eleven-year-old Oliva Baccarella in 1807, an event handed down by popular tradition as miraculous.
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 Lercara Friddi, but an easy day trip away.
