The patron saint of Portopalo di Capo Passero is Saint Cajetan of Thiene, celebrated on 7 August with a procession of his statue through the town's main streets and its return to church accompanied by fireworks; in the following days popular events and traditional contests are held, including regattas with local boats in the waters of Scalo Mandrie and the so-called breaking of the pignatelli (pots) in Via Vittorio Emanuele.
Today's town owes its origin to the initiative of don Gaetano Deodato Moncada, of the aristocratic Sicilian family of the same name: from as early as 1778 he promoted a programme to develop the area and, in 1792, had about a hundred houses built at his own expense near the local tuna fishery, fostering the birth of a stable population centre. The church of San Gaetano, the town's main place of worship, was built between 1927 and 1931 to a design by the engineer Corrado Costa, with the façade designed by Giuseppe Giardina, and was opened on 8 November 1931; damaged by a fire in 2012, it was replaced by the church of the Madonna Greca Eleusa Mother of Mercy, built between 2013 and 2015 to a design by the Stancanelli Russo Associati studio with contemporary architectural forms inspired by the surrounding marine environment. Castello Tafuri, on Via Tonnara, was built in 1935 in a panoramic position at the southernmost tip of Sicily and today houses a hospitality venue.
