Corleone

Corleone is associated in the collective imagination with mafia families, having in fact long been a stronghold of bandits, particularly in the 1980s, with the bloodthirsty Toto Riina and Provenzano. This image remains attached to the town because of the Godfather saga by Coppola, despite the residents’ desire to distance themselves from it. In fact, nothing here evokes the film saga, which was never a filming location anyway (the scenes of the film set in Corleone were shot in Savoca and Forza d’Agrò), apart from the “il padrino” cocktails or liqueurs (the godfather in Italian), and the film posters pinned up in the bistros.

Church of Santissimo Salvatore, Corleone

In a territory frequented since the Neolithic and antiquity, Corleone was a Byzantine town, then Arab and Norman. The settlement occupies a basin largely protected by a ridge of limestone rocks.
The village has kept some significant heritage elements with medieval churches and structures, as well as interesting geology with the rocky ridge, the two fortress-rocks, the nature park with its waterfall.

Visiting Corleone

The historic heart retains traces of its Saracen origin, with a district of winding, narrow alleys.

Two rocks of Corleone are crowned by the remains of two fortresses, with to the southeast the Saracen watchtower (9th century) and the remains of the Soprano castle.
Closer to the center, the rock on the southwest side is occupied by the remains of another medieval castle known as Sottano and a Franciscan hermitage.

Near the foot of the first, the “waterfall of the two rocks” (Cascata delle Due Rocche) is a pretty natural site with its canyon carved by the Corleone stream, with its small waterfall 4 meters high, its small lake and remains of a medieval aqueduct.
The site can be reached via alleys from the town, passing by the church of the Madonna delle due rocche.

Waterfall of the two rocks

The Pippo Rizzo municipal museum housed in the Palazzo Provenzano presents an archaeological collection with pieces such as the “Pietra Miliare” bearing the oldest Latin inscription in Sicily (252 BC), remains of Roman mosaic, votive statues, artifacts from sites such as the Montagna Vecchia, covering a continuous occupation of the territory from prehistory to the medieval period.

The town also stands out with its “hundred churches”, including the Capuchin convent, the San Salvatore monastery (18th century), the San Agostino church from the 14th century and the San Domenico church from the 16th century.
The San Martino cathedral was built in 1382 on an older structure, enlarged between the 15th and 17th centuries, with a dome adorned with frescoes by Carmelo Sarpiatra from the 18th century or decorations and altarpieces from different periods.

Corleone also houses an Antimafia Museum, dedicated to the memory of the fight against the mafia, the CIDMA (Centro Internazionale di Documentazione sulla Mafia e del Movimento Antimafia), also a documentation and archive center, which presents photos, judicial documents, testimonies from anti-mafia trials and accounts of the social history of contemporary Sicily.
The Ethnographic Museum of Corleone, housed in the former Olivetan monastery, presents a collection of more than 2000 agricultural and craft objects illustrating peasant life and the traditional trades of the territory, from the 19th to the 20th century. The tour reconstructs typical spaces such as the stable, the kitchen, the bedroom and the artisan’s workshop, with tools, machines, etc.

In the surroundings, less than 20 km to the northeast, extends the Ficuzza woods with the palace of the royal hunting reserve from the early 19th century. It is an area suitable for walking, with to the south the Rocca Busambra, a peak of the Sicani mountains reaching 1673 meters, described as the “Sicilian Dolomite”.

Photo gallery

Where Corleone is located: map

Information

Suggested visits

Sources and external sites

• Corleone on Wikipedia
• Municipality of Corleone website : section of the municipality’s official website.
• Corleone – Città Metropolitana di Palermo : institutional tourism portal of the metropolitan city of Palermo.
• Corleone on Visit Sicily : Official tourism website of Sicily

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