Sicani mountains

The history...

The road that connects Agrigento to Palermo has always been extremely important for Sicily.

Since the archaic age has allowed the connection between the shores of the Mediterranean and those of the Tyrrhenian, so that the South could breathe the air of the North and its cultural contaminations.

From the Greek settlers of the Aegean islands that arrived in the seventh century to found the Sicilian polis and to confront and collide with the Phoenician peoples who occupied the western point of the island until the Romans who, once conquered Akragas (Agrigento), traveled to conquer Panormus ( Palermo), building a statio and mansion: network along the way. They are stations, built at precise distances that allowed travelers and horses to cool off or sleep and remained active until the fourth century.

Shortly afterwards the Byzantines occupied the region, settling on the fortresses and hills, in order to defend themselves from the Muslim warriors of North Africa, Arabia and Spain, who invaded the island in the ninth century, transforming the appearance of the streets and villages, which over the centuries they thrived or had been abandoned.

During the second half of 11th century the island was freed from Arabs by French knights, coming from the coasts of Normandy and in little more than thirty years, under the guidance of the Grand Count Ruggero d'Altavilla and his brother Roberto the Guiscardo, they reconquered the island, bringing back the Christianity  in the entire territory and rebuilding churches with Greek rite  and new rituals with Latin rite, allowing that osmosis that created the conditions for the Sicilian society of today.