The San Francesco suburban park is a Mediterranean garden of about twelve thousand square metres below the bastion of piazza Bagolino, at the entrance to Alcamo, near Porta Palermo. It was created by the council led by mayor Massimo Ferrara, in office from 1993 to 2001, in an area where outdoor sports facilities had been planned in the sixties.
What to see
The park is laid out as a garden, with many plants and trees typical of Mediterranean scrub. On 18 November 2014 the council entrusted it through a public tender to the Laurus association, whose volunteers cleaned it up, look after the greenery and created a children's playground, a small petting farm and easy access for people with disabilities.
During the school year the association runs cultural and play activities for children and educational workshops for primary schools. Since 2010, in August, the Alcart festival has brought exhibitions, talks, music and theatre to the park; in spring there has been a Spring Festival, with games and flower planting, and in December Christmas at the Park, with choirs, exhibitions, markets and a living crib.
Visiting
Opening times and the events programme should be checked with the association that runs the park.
Our editors' tip
Passing through Porta Palermo, look at the bronze reliefs by the sculptor Nicola Rubino: they show the poet Cielo d'Alcamo at the court of Frederick II and the working life of Alcamo.
