Audiotour Zigzagging between land and sea - Ecomuseum of the 5 Senses of Sciacca

Come to Sciacca and discover its charm!
The city was founded in the 5th century B.C., it is rich in traces left by Arabs, Normans,
and Bourbons. We will lead you through an itinerary to discover landscape beauties that
will make you fall in love with our historic city. Built amphitheatre-shaped, the city of Sciacca overlooks the sea. In the central part of the city, you can find the “borgo marinaro”, the seaside village, which is the home of the fishermen. You can arrive at the quarter starting in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, passing through Vicolo San Lorenzo, which leads to a site, important both for the presence of the former church of San Lorenzo, built in the 16 th century, and for the important architectural elements of the way, such as pointed arches, mullioned windows and little courtyards.
Continuing the walk, you will cross many small streets until you get to Barone courtyard,
where you can discover a beautiful mullioned window and a Gothic portal on the previously
called “casa del corallo” (The house of the coral).
The coral is also mentioned in the legend of “Bettu Ammareddu” born from historical facts:
the young Bettu, throwing himself in the sea deep to look for a medal, received as a gift
from his girlfriend, found the precious coral that made Sciacca famous.
Going on through the narrow streets you will find yourself on a terrace from which you can
admire the beautiful panorama of the port that will leave you enchanted by the pastel
colours of the about 200 picturesque fishing boats docked at the port, making it all look like a living postcard. Continuing, you will glance at one of the caves of the “Loader” (Caricatore in italian), a system of channels that originally led wheat to the seven storehouses in the seaside zone. Then, another thing that will catch your eye is the “zig-zag” stairway, used in the past by mules for transporting the grain. You will notice how the stairways have been skilfully decorated with the lively colours of majolica, colour taking you to the port zone, where not far from it you will see a wide rock called “Rocca Sant’Elmo” or “Rocca Regina” on which top, in the night, fires were lit up as a signal to
sailors. According to a legend, two noble lovers found shelter on this rock: Norman countess Juliet
of Hauteville and the cousin Robert of Basseville, with whom she madly fell in love.
From the imponent Rocca Regina, turning your sight right, you will see a statue of the
“Madonna del Soccorso”, which dominates the immensity of the sea, the statue highlights
how much sailors are devoted to the Holy Mary for saving people from Sciacca from the
Plague that in 1626 struck Sciacca. At this point, with your back to the sea, you will see a
colourful canvas of houses with wooden doors of many shops and boutiques. Here you could get the chance to see old sailors, sitting around an old wooden table, playing cards waiting for the sunset.
To return to the historic centre of Sciacca you will walk through an upward path leading
you to the medieval “Porta di Mare” (Door of the Sea), thus called because it overlooks the
wonderful sea. Of the door, demolished in 1870, we know that it consisted of two arches
inclined towards the nearby church of Sant’Antonio Abate, with a 15 th -century portal and the near Rabingallo palace. Next to the door is still present the guardhouse built to control the port in case of attack on the granaries by pirates. Speaking of granaries, it is told of a guardian who found some Turks stealing the grain, thus he closed the door and went to the upper part managing to kill seven of them gaining the nickname, or “nciuria” in Sicilian, of “Ammazzasette” (killer of seven), between fishermen there is the custom of identifying people through the “nciuria”, instead of the surname. At this point your curiosity will be so great that you will want to make this experience and come to Sciacca knowing you will find in addition to so much history, a mild climate, good food and so much hospitality that distinguishes us.

 Translated by Francesco Ferrara