The name is an exclamation: «che rocca amena» — what a lovely rock — is what prince Giuseppe Beccadelli is said to have cried looking at the hill and the crags around it. It was 1779, he had just bought the fief of Sparacia — Jesuit property — and he had licence to found a town on it.
The town grew around a cluster of houses called the Quattro Case; the first parish register dates from 1798, and it became a comune in 1846. It lies between the two branches of the Belice, below Monte Maranfusa, where the castle of Calatrasi stood, which Idrisi described as a stronghold to be relied on. Below, on the river, still stands the pointed-arch bridge they call the Devil's Bridge. There are 1,562 residents.
Sfincione · Arancina · Pasta alla Norma
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Next up: Saint Joseph, patron celebrated twice a year with the «Altars», Friday 19 March
Nearest airport: Palermo Falcone-Borsellino, 38 km away
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📅 Every year, on 19 March, with a second feast in the second week of August
Roccamena celebrates Saint Joseph on 19 March with the traditional «Altars», banquets offered to the poor in thanks for a grace received, and again in the second week of August with the «Funzioni», a sacred play drawn from the apocryphal gospels.
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 Roccamena, but an easy day trip away.
