The castle of Gresti or Pietratagliata is located near the village of Aidone, in Sicily. Its current condition is that of ruin even if well legible in the forms that are composed mainly of a mighty tower full and a series of rooms ingrottate. The first historical news documented dating back to the XIV century. The castle stands on a high rocky ridge of sandstone. The central part, the spur higher, has been used by man for its strategic position as a control station and defense. In fact the castle constitutes an outpost or a fortress of sighting for the control of a vast territory, connoted by important streets of communications which from the eastern coast is addentravano toward the center of Sicily dominated by settlements which Morgantina, Enna, Agira.
The name “Pietratagliata”, which refers certainly because of the presence of the environments that are cut into the rock, is already witnessed in the documents in the medieval era. But popular tradition knows it with the name “Castle of Gresti” (in dialect: u castedd’ î Grest), probably due to its proximity with the Cozzo of Gresti, a modest relief on which in Greek age-Roman was born a settlement.
The structure extends over four levels: on the first level, which is also the oldest to be found in the rural houses and a large cave which opens with a loggia south and with a window and loggia and north. At the second level from which also begins the tower full and part the scale dug in the rock, there are two local: an input and a room with window delimited by benches in masonry. At the third level, the second floor where you find the environments “noble” representation, there are four rooms dug in the rock and other in masonry. The fourth level is present an environment with entrance portal which would suggest a chapel and a cistern to collect rainwater. A mention deserves the high tower full, firmly anchored to the rock, visible at large distances. Has walls from compact surfaces, underlined by sharp built in blocks of stone perfectly squared; access to the terrace of the tower was allowed by a beautiful spiral staircase, with steps of basalt, placed in the corner of the south-east.
For the structure and for some particular aspects, the castle may not have had the function of an aristocratic residence, but was certainly a fortress of sighting within the valley of Gornalunga that, from the earliest times, has made a connection between the Ionic coast and the interior. The presence of numerous castles like (some today recognizable only by the toponymy) suggests plausible to assume that the castle had inserted inside a network of optical signals, defined anciently fani or fires, which allowed to rapidly transmit a signal even at a great distance. The optical network is here represented by the guidelines: Enna – Valguarnera – Pietratagliata – Morgantina – Aidone – Mongialino – Mineo.