For more than five hundred years the lands of Palazzo Adriano were administered by a monastery: Santa Maria di Fossanova, which from 1282 granted them in emphyteusis to some thirty different baronies. It ended only in 1787, when the royal court of Ferdinand IV took the lot.
The name appears as Palacium Adriani in a deed of 1273, but the casale Arianum can already be read in 1060. From the fifteenth century the Arbëresh arrived, and the town still belongs to the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi. The square is the one in Cinema Paradiso, filmed here in 1988. There are 2,227 residents.
Sfincione · Arancina · Pasta alla Norma
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Next up: Saint Nicholas of Myra, patron of the town of Cinema Paradiso, Sunday 6 December
Nearest airport: Palermo Falcone-Borsellino, 61 km away
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📅 Every year, on 5 and 6 December
Palazzo Adriano celebrates Saint Nicholas of Myra on 5 and 6 December according to the Byzantine rite, with the traditional «Virgineddi» festival; its main square and mother church are among the most recognisable locations of Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore.
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.
