Acitrezza, a hamlet of Acicastello (CT), was founded by the Spanish at the end of the 1600s when Etna’s volcanic eruptions threatened Catania. Having bought it from the Spanish Crown, the Prince of Campofiorito carried out drainage work, built the little harbour and developed the fishing trade. Its landscape is dominated by the faraglioni, rocky stacks of volcanic origin, that rise metres from the shoreline, today a marine reserve and part of the Cyclops archipelago along with Lachea island facing the little harbour.
The town’s main church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693 and extended and embellished in the centuries that followed: the Baroque façade has a classic portal, beneath two bell chambers.
Acitrezza was immortalized in Giovanni Verga’s novel I Malavoglia (The House of the Medlar Tree). An ancient fisherman’s house, where Luchino Visconti shot La Terra Trema (The Earth Trembles) in 1948, stands in the square named after the writer. A small museum, featuring fishing tools that date to the 1800s and set photographs from Visconti’s film, is housed inside the “House of the Medlar Tree”, believed to have inspired Verga’s story.
Sicilia Film Commission
Via Emanuele Notarbartolo 9 — 90141 Palermo
Phone: +39 091 7078008; +39 091 7078264; +39 091 7078133; +39 091 7078145
Email: filmcommission@regione.sicilia.it
