Enna

Let us delve into the centre of Sicily’s hinterland. Enna has the highest elevation of any provincial capital in Europe, capable of enchanting you from any point in the city thanks to the beauty of the nature that surrounds it. Discover 10 things to do in and around the city.

The information herein provided has been updated and improved from the official website visitsicily.info.

Cathedral

The monumental splendour of Enna’s Duomo dominates the historic centre of the city. Dedicated to the Maria Santissima della Visitazione (Visitation of the Holy Virgin Mary), Enna’s patron saint, it is listed as a National Monument and as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It is the main local architectural representation of the Middle Ages and was built at the behest of the Queen of Sicily Eleanor of Anjou as an act of celebration for the birth of her son Peter.

The Cathedral's majestic façade features splendid elements of Gothic and Sicilian Baroque, which blend together to create an architectural work of absolute beauty.

Photos by Paolo Barone

Lombardy Castle and
Federico II's Tower

Near the Rocca di Cerere, we find the symbol of the city of Enna. The Lombardy Castle is one of the largest medieval castles in Italy. It was here that Frederick II of Swabia convened the first Sicilian Parliament.

Of the surviving towers, the 13th-century Torre Pisana, also known as the Tower of the Eagles, is the city’s main attraction: Sicily’s quintessential Belvedere. From here, the lookouts of old could control a large part of the island and even the sea on a clear day.

The octagonal Frederick’s Tower, surrounded by the homonymous city park , was connected for centuries to the Lombardy Castle by a tunnel dug into the rock below the city.

A short distance away stands the monumental Porta Janniscuru, one of Enna’s ancient gates.

Photos by Giuseppe Arango | Salvatore Romanotto

Rocca di Cerere

The most extraordinary view of Enna opens up before our eyes from Rocca di Cerere, the site of the sacred temple to the Mother Goddess. She was known by the Ancient Greeks as Demeter and by the Romans as Ceres.

The landscape, which opens majestically over the wheat fields, varies according to the season and time of day. The colours change, from the soft shades of dawn to the intense hues of dusk.

In Magna Greece, Earth’s seasonal cycles were for centuries explained by the myth of Demeter and Kore:

Hades, the God of the Underworld, abducted Kore while she was picking flowers by Pergusa Lake (near Enna, Magna Grecia). Kore then ate the pomegranate seeds that Hades offered her and was transformed into his wife, the Goddess of the Underworld. Demeter, Kore’s mother and Goddess of harvest, was despondent, searching for her daughter all while allowing everything on the Earth’s surface to die. After negotiating with Hades and Demeter, Zeus decided that Persephone would spend half a year in the Underworld and half a year on Earth. Hence we have six months of planting and growth and six months of harvest and lifelessness.

Don’t miss a visit to the Myth Museum in Enna for a fascinating immersive multimedia experience.

Photos by Paolo Barone | unknown

Feast of Our Lady of the Visitation
and Holy Week

The statue of the Madonna, covered in gold and precious stones, is placed inside a “vara”, a large procession float called Nave d’Oro (Golden Ship) and carried in procession by 118 bearers (the “ignudi” or "the naked").

Among Enna's must-see religious rites are those of the Holy Week. A legacy of Spanish domination on the island, it calls for the participation of a large part of the city’s male population.

When “la paesana“, the fog, as the people of Enna call it, descends, the atmosphere becomes even more suggestive.

Between the sacred and the profane, we cannot but mention the gastronomic tradition of the festivities. On Easter Sunday, "abbuttunatu" lamb and "stigliole" are another must. On Easter Monday, everyone goes to the countryside for a barbecue and a selection of fried food with fresh broad beans and local wild herbs, such as fennel and "mazzareddi," and delicious artichokes cooked in ashes. All is finished off with a type of fried pastry filled with ricotta.

Photos by Giuseppe Arango | Paolo Barone

Pergusa Lake and Park

The Lago di Pergusa, a natural lake in the Sicilian interior, is a key migratory area for many species of birds, as it is situated along one of the main migratory routes in the western Palaearctic region.

It is an ideal stopping place for thousands of aquatic birds in transit to Africa. Ornithologists can easily spot teal, wigeon, shoveler, pochard, coot, marsh harrier and ferruginous duck. Mammals include porcupines and weasels, reptiles such as marsh tortoises and various amphibians.

Until a few years ago, the waters of Lake Pergusa were coloured due to the presence of a small shrimp that defended itself from the rays of the summer sun by producing a red pigment, setting in very dense colonies under aquatic plants, and releasing some of the pigment onto the water. Whenever the redding of the waters were repeated, it was seen as a sign of bad omen. This phenomenon also amazed Aristotle and Pliny, who had observed the same sanguine colouring in the lake of Bolsena in 208 BC. In recent times, there has been a slow reduction of the red hue in the waters of Pergusa.

Photos by unknown

Church of San Marco and
Convent of Discalced Carmelite Nuns

The church of San Marco, with the adjoining cloistered Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, was built on the ruins of an ancient synagogue that marked the boundary of the Jewish ghetto, still remembered today by the name given to the area: the Iudeca. It has a single nave in Baroque style with sumptuous stucco work inside that contrasts with the severe linearity of the exterior façade.

Photos by Luca Mangano | Salvatore Presti

Floristella Grottacalda

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Like an open-air museum, the Parco Minerario Floristella Grottacalda joined the two disused sulphur mines of the same name.

An example of the industrial archaeology settlements of southern Italy, it offers an opportunity to learn about sulphur extraction and smelting techniques from various periods.

You can see the “calcaroni” (circular furnaces for smelting), the “discenderie” (semi-vertical tunnels), the “castelletti” and the vertical shafts, the Gil furnaces (a more modern system for smelting sulphur).

The fascinating Palazzo Pennisi, the ancient residence of the owner’s family, dominates the Floristella mining complex. With its water collection works, it is an artefact of considerable historical as well as architectural interest.

Photos by unknown | Simona Politini

Piazza Armerina and
Villa Romana del Casale

The small town of Piazza Armerina, with its medieval layout in the green woods that surround it, is famous for its historical and archaeological heritage. Walking through the numerous rooms and long corridors of the Villa Romana del Casale is like visiting ancient Rome.

Dating back to the late imperial era (3rd-4th century AD), the villa belonged to a member of the Roman senatorial aristocracy, probably a governor of Rome (Praefectus Urbi). According to some scholars, however, it was built and enlarged at the request of a very high imperial official, Maximian Erculius, a tetrarch of Diocletian.

It is a monumental complex of great historical and artistic importance that celebrates the glories of its owner through an iconography stylistically influenced by African culture.

This fabulous archaeological site is characterised by the vastness of its public and private environments. Important excavations conducted in the mid-twentieth century brought to light 3,500 square meters of figurative and geometric mosaic flooring, as well as columns, statues, capitals, and coins.

According to illustrious art historians, the mosaics are the most beautiful and best preserved of their kind.

Photos by unknown

Aidone's Archaeological Museum and Morgantina's Archaeological Site

Aidone is a small and characteristic town in the Monti Erei. It is located in one of the most interesting cultural and natural areas of central Sicily: the important Sicilian-Greek-Hellenistic site of Morgantina and the Villa Romana del Casale, a UNESCO site, are both on its territory.

If you walk through the centre and listen carefully, you will find yourself listening to one of Sicily’s Gallo-Italic dialects.

Photos by Parco Archeologico di Morgantina e della Villa Romana del Casale | unkown