Top 4 Castles around Santa Margherita Di Belice

The Monte Genuardo and Santa Maria del Bosco Nature Reserve, established for the importance of its oak forest formations and the presence of some rare animal species, encompasses notable naturalistic aspects as well as archaeological and landscape values worthy of attention. The vegetation landscape is a mosaic of elements with different degrees of naturalness, reflecting both soil and microclimatic conditions and the activities that humans have carried out over the years for agriculture and pastoralism. The landscape is dominated by Monte Genuardo, on whose slopes there are outcrops of “pillow lavas”, a type of lava formed by characteristic cushion-shaped structures, geologically very interesting, the territory is articulated in a complex and varied way due to the presence of rock formations, depressions, and fractures. The vegetation reflects this diversity, so that holm oak woods are found on particularly rocky soils, downy oak woods where the soil is more mature, riparian vegetation along the streams, mountain meadows near the summit of Monte Genuardo rich in endemic species, abundant shrub formations that testify to a pre-existing forest cover. The fauna is rich in species of birds, reptiles, mammals, insects among invertebrates. In the oldest part of the forest are the abbey of Santa Maria del Bosco, built between 1593 and 1646 by the Congregation of the Olivetan Abbots, and the Castle of Calatamauro, of Arab manufacture.

The Grifeo Castle in Partanna (Trapani) houses the Regional Museum of Prehistory of the Belice. It is located in Piazza Umberto I. It preserves important archaeological finds from the Belice Valley from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. The medieval castle also offers historic rooms and a tower with a panoramic view.

goosebumps place, if you stop to read the sign "the tears of Christ" I assure you that your pedaling will change! another area devastated by the earthquake of 68...

The former Capuchin convent of the 18th century. They were built at the end of the 18th century, on land purchased by Prince Fabrizio Alliata and at his expense, who endowed the friars with income for worship, food and the maintenance of the structures. The church, inserted in the body of the convent, had a single nave which was accessed through the beautiful portal crowned by a robust mixtilinear frame. The convent consisted of sixteen rooms on the ground floor, some of which had a real vault and thirty-one on the first floor, connected by long corridors. From 1927 to 1963 it was used as a hospital and later as a school; it has recently been restored and consolidated also with the insertion of new metal structures.

The ruins of Salaparuta, a small Sicilian town, are the historical testimony of the serious earthquake that struck the Belice valley in 1968. The ruins are what remained of the old inhabited center of the Trapani municipality and keep alive the memory of one of the most dramatic events that it hit Sicily and all of Italy.

What remains of the old inhabited center of Salaparuta, destroyed by the earthquake of 1968, is a mass of ruins among which the ruins of houses emerge, the base of the square tower of the Paruta castle, the lower part of the perimeter walls of the Mother Church, with the bases of the pillars of the naves and the structures of the side altars. A basilica with three naves, a transept and a high dome, it had a very slender facade in the middle part, typical of the best examples of Sicilian Baroque. On the external wall of the Sancetta house, a small shrine remembers the place where the miraculous tearing of a plaster bedside, depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus, took place in January 1957. Recent restorations have restored the 18th century Capuchin convent.

What remains of the old inhabited center of Salaparuta, destroyed by the earthquake of 1968, is a mass of ruins among which the ruins of houses emerge, the base of the square tower of the Paruta castle, the lower part of the perimeter walls of the Mother Church, with the bases of the pillars of the naves and the structures of the side altars. A basilica with three naves, a transept and a high dome, it had a very slender facade in the middle part, typical of the best examples of Sicilian Baroque. On the external wall of the Sancetta house, a small shrine remembers the place where the miraculous tearing of a plaster bedside, depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus, took place in January 1957. Recent restorations have restored the 18th century Capuchin convent.

Archaeological Park of the Strait A few km from the town of Partanna rises the Strait called today "Archaeological Park". Since the beginning of the twentieth century in Contrada Stretto excavations have been carried out and have been found: the Bell-shaped glass, ceramics and moats. A great discovery was that of the “Drilled Skull”. From the studies carried out it is thought that, 5 thousand years ago, a surgery was done and that the patient lived for at least a year. These finds are found in the “Museo del Castello Grifeo”.