Travel Guide Chiaramonte Gulfi

15 kilometres north of Ragusa, this town of 8,000 inhabitants is set in a hilly landscape where agriculture predominates. Cereals, citrus fruits, vines and olive trees are the main products. Traces of human life date back to prehistoric times, but it was really at the time of the Greeks that the town was founded and named Akrillai. More exactly by Corinthians who had already founded another colony in Syracuse, on the trade route to Gela and Kamarina. It was later occupied by the Romans and then the Arabs. In the 13th century, the place is said to have been the site of a bloody defeat by the Arabs against the Normans. The town is named after its founder: Manfredi Chiaramonte, Count of Modica, who built fortifications in the 13th century. It was only in 1881 that the word Gulfi was added, to avoid confusing the town with its founding father.In the 16th century, the city began to develop outside its medieval fortifications. Men took advantage of the wide open spaces to diversify their crops: vines, almonds and olive trees populated the landscape. After the earthquake at the end of the 17th century, Chiramonte Gulfi was rebuilt: the sanctuary of Maria Santissima di Gulfi, the chiesa di Madre, the church of San Giovanni... At the time of the unity of Italy, the town was nicknamed "the balcony of Sicily" and became one of the richest regions in olive trees.