{"id":68224,"date":"2015-06-05T16:09:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T15:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sicile-sicilia.net\/?p=68224"},"modified":"2026-10-14T08:31:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:31:20","slug":"aidone-and-pietratagliata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sicile-sicilia.net\/en\/aidone-and-pietratagliata","title":{"rendered":"Aidone and Pietratagliata"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Located in the heart of the Heraean Mountains<\/strong>, the town of Aidone<\/strong> is often referred to as the “balcony of Sicily”. It took its name in the 11th century when it was Saracen, from the Arabic Ayndun meaning abundant source of water<\/em>.
Surrounded by green and fertile hills, Aidone lies equidistant from the three coasts of Sicily, close to Etna and the plain of Catania, and situated between the Nebrodi Mountains<\/a> to the north and the Hyblaean Mountains<\/a> to the south.<\/p>\n

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Historical overview<\/h2>\n

A few kilometres away there was an important ancient city, Morgantina<\/strong><\/a>, originating in the Bronze Age, populated by the Sicani, the Sicels, the Greeks, and then the Romans. The town’s museum preserves its archaeological discoveries.
The village of Aidone is marked by the Middle Ages, with its churches of Norman origin, or in the surroundings the suggestive ruins of the Castle of Pietratagliata<\/strong> on a rock at the end of a wall of rock cutting across the valley.
The town experienced the vicissitudes of history between the many conflicts and the successive occupations of the Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese, or the Church. The violent earthquake of 1693 was devastating, and subsequently some of its churches were restored in the Baroque style. In 1805, with the discovery of a sulphur deposit, Aidone began to grow wealthy, until the closure of the mine in 1960.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Castle of Pietratagliata<\/h2>\n

The Castle of Pietratagliata<\/strong> (Cut stone in Italian), also called “dei Gresti”, is located about 10 km north of Aidone, on the “contrada” Gresti, on the border of the territory of Raddusa. It is one of the most interesting examples in central Sicily of rock-cut fortification, combining architecture carved into the rock and masonry.<\/p>\n

Tradition evokes a Byzantine then Arab phase, before the Norman occupation. The castle fulfilled the function of an outpost controlling a network of roads that linked the eastern coast (Catania-Syracuse) to the central hinterland of Sicily. It belonged to the fief of Gresti in the 14th century (from the first written trace in 1374), integrated into the baronies of Aidone (Gioeni family in the 16th century) within the kingdom of Sicily.<\/p>\n\n\n