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MOUNT GENUARDO

Contessa Entellina is situated on the northern side of Monte Genuardo nelle S. Maria del Bosco. Near the high basin of the Belice Left River. See Map.

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San Maria della Bosco monastery is located at the top of Mount Genuardo, just above Contessa Entellina. S. Maria del Bosco di Calatamauro Abbey, 10 km north towards Contessa Entellina, situated on the slopes of Monte Genuardo (gennart al-ard, an Arabian name which means "paradise on earth"). Originally a hermitage of the Fraticelli (the spiritual wing of the Franciscans, accused of heresy by Pope John XXII of Avignon) and later an important Benedectine priory, S. Maria di Calatamauro was elevated to an abbey by Pope Boniface IX in the jubilee in 1400. At the beginning of the 15th century, it passed to the Olivetans on the initiative of Placido Castaneda, an abbot from Giuliana of Spanish origin, under whose rule reached a good economical magnificance. Rightly called the 'Montecassino of Sicily", this huge grey stone" (this expression was said by Lanza Tomasi), in spite of the irreparable scars which the church underwent with the numerous fallings after the Belice earthquake, still shows its mannerist "phase", especially in the two column cloisters (te first introduced the Serliana element in the island) designed by the Lombard architect Antonio Muffone and made by the stone-cutter Paolo Busacca from Ficarra, in Messina province).

Monte Genuardo (m. 1189) represents a very important nature area, both for its plant landscape, characterised by Ouercus ilex and Ouercus virginiana with some Sorbus aria and Paeonia mascula, Bonarrea graeca" and Acer campestre in the underwood, and for the avifauna (the red Pied Woodpecker, the Sparrowhawk, the Kite, the Peregrine).

Monte Genuardo is in the territorio del Contessa Entellina, Comune di Sambuca di Sicilia and Giuliana.

Near Comune di Sambuca di Sicilia, is the Monte Adranone site, in the Belice valley, presents a first indigenous phase dating from the Iron Age, a Greek phase probably dating from the foundation of the colony by the people of Selinunte, and a Punic settlement from the fourth century B.C., to be related to the Carthaginian destruction of the Greek settlement. The site was later to be abandoned, when the Roman occupation came in the third century B.C. As regards Selinunte, although there is evidence of intense cultural and commercial relations between the Greek and Punic peoples in the archaic and classical ages, the Punic phase actually only began at the end of the fifth century B.C., when the Greek town was conquered once and for all by the Carthaginians. In this period, the settlement was restricted to the acropolis and only a small part of the previous layout was re-used until the First Punic War, when the inhabitants were transferred to Lilybaeum and the gradual abandonment of Selinunte began. Here is an itinerary tour of Sambuca di Sicilia.

Learn more about Tourism in Sambuca di Sicilia and visit the archeological site of Mount Adranone. Learn more about Sambuca Di Sicilia facts, history and photos. The town overlooks the Valley di Belice.

Explore the Sicilian Nature and Migratory Birds - Page 154