On 11 March 1838 a landslide carried away two thirds of San Giuseppe li Mortilli — luckily with no deaths — and the families left without a house moved half a mile downhill, to the district of Sancipirello. The land was given free by the princess of Camporeale, Laura Acton, and a royal decree that July gave leave to rebuild there.
The new town was designed as a small ideal city: a square plan, a grid of streets, four squares with as many fountains at the corners. By 1841 seven hundred people were already living there, and they asked at once to become a comune of their own: they proclaimed themselves one in 1848, were made a hamlet again by the Bourbons, and won autonomy only on 4 January 1865. There are 5,478 residents.
Sfincione · Arancina · Pasta alla Norma
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Next up: Mary Most Holy Immaculate, patroness of a town near the ancient Iaitas, Wednesday 8 September
Nearest airport: Palermo Falcone-Borsellino, 27 km away
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📅 Every year, on 8 September
San Cipirello celebrates Mary Most Holy Immaculate on 8 September, in the church designed by Fra Serafino in 1841 on the model of the basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi in Palermo; the town lies beside the archaeological site of Monte Jato, the ancient Iaitas.
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.
