Sambuca di Sicilia

Sammuca, in Sicilian, has Arabic origin and to distinguish it from the homonymous tuscan village, taken in 1863 the additional Zabut by the name of the ancient castle thus named by the Emir Zabut; but in 1923 it assumed its present name. Perched on a hill, is located in the Belice Valley at 350 m.a.s.l. Today's Sambuca, was founded by the Arabs around the 830, a few years after their landing in Sicily and the called Zabuth (to remember the homonymous Arab emir Al-Zabut that had erected in that place a castle) and built on the slopes of Monte Genuardo, between the Belice and the Sosio River. To the north the castle is protected by crenellated walls with saettere, south, the farmhouse adjacent winds in the Arabic Quarter. Sambuca still preserves traces of its Islamic matrix in "Arab district", built by an urban plant which developed around seven "Saracens Alleys" (li setti vaneddi), transformed into a living history museum arabic-sicula and in the Mazzallakkar Fortress on the shores of Lake Arancio which is submerged whenever rises to the level of the lake. Many styles are interwoven and many eras Sambuca is a witness and preserves signs. On the Monte Adranone rises the archaeological complex of the IV century B.C. and the ancient Arab farmhouse in the resort area. Baroque facades and palaces of the nineteenth century are mixed to a historic center of Arab origin, the church of the Matrix and the Belvedere Terrace, remains of the ancient castle of the Emir. Important are also the seventeenth-century Palazzo Panitteri (near the ethno-anthropological Museum), the palazzo dell'Arpa (seat of the Town Hall) and the Ciaccio Palace, the church of Carmine with the marble statue of gaginiana school of Our Lady of the hearing, Patroness of Sambuca di Sicilia and the church of San Michele Arcangelo with the equestrian fercolo in wood of San Giorgio that pierces the dragon. The sign of a population attentive to culture is the Teatro Comunale the idea and the Institution Gianbecchina. Outside the historic center, remain the ancient towers of Pandolfina Cellaro and and the Mazzallakkar Fortress which emerge the towers only in the summer months when the level of the Lake Arancio lowers. The local economy is mainly agricultural character-pastoral. Important is the production of oil with the autochthonous Oliva Nocellara del Belice (DOP). The wine, typical The Sambuca di Sicilia DOC, is the main resource of the local economy. It is produced in the numerous wine cellars and exported throughout Italy, in vast areas of Europe but also in North America and in Asia. Furthermore there are many herds of sheep which contribute to the production of dairy products local, among which the Vastedda della Valle del Belìce PDO. It is important to remember the local pastries, famous for various sweets: Minna of virgin, traditional agri-foodstuffs, sweet almonds, cucciddata, cassatedde.

BY CAR

• Traveling on the highway, the closest exits to the center of Sambuca di Sicilia are:
  - S.Ninfa - Partanna exit (A29 Palermo-Mazara del Vallo)
  - Castelvetrano exit (A29 Palermo-Mazara del Vallo)

ON THE TRAIN

• Castelvetrano station
• Mazara del Vallo station

BY PLANE

• Palermo airport