At its heart it holds one of the most famous squares in Sicily. Set for the Oscar-nominated film “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso,” the historic center of Palazzo Adriano has been reborn with a project to restore and enhance the 24 fountains and three ancient citadels that characterize the village halfway between Palermo and Agrigento. The project, for a total amount of 1,300,000 euros,” the regional government reports, “was financed by the Regional Department of Cultural Heritage with Poc 2014-2020 funds.
With the funding, the 24 fountains in the city center were restored and illuminated, and the city paths connecting, through the fountains, the three ancient citadels were upgraded. New street furniture and artistic lighting in the historic center have been arranged, along with the securing of major buildings. The goal,” they emphasize from the region, “aimed at the historical-architectural recovery of the village, which has also been an important stage for events in the past. In addition to Giuseppe Tornatore’s film, Palazzo Adriano, in fact, served as the set for the new film project of the very young Sicilian director Francesca Belli, who made a short film together with Naba of Milan, with the support of Sicilia Film Commission and the participation of Angelo Sicilia’s Teatro dei Pupi.
“The recovery of territories and the new narrative of spaces,” stresses the Regional Councillor for Cultural Heritage, Alberto Samonà, “are tools through which an important message of investment in the development potential linked to the culture and tradition of places is conveyed. The intervention, which is inspired by the principles of the European Landscape Convention, aimed at a historical reinterpretation of Palazzo Adriano, through the enhancement of the main architectural evidence and historical traces in the territory.”
Set amid lush greenery, Palazzo Adriano stands at the foot of Rose Mountain, named for the spontaneous blooming of thornless peony roses that occurs in February. Legend has it that these roses bloomed as Saint Rosalie passed by. The town’s urban layout is sunburst with the octagonal fountain from 1608 in the center, which is located in Umberto I Square.
From here, alleys and arches wind their way through the historic center, within which three citadels have been identified that arose beginning in the late 1400s for strategic-military reasons. The first citadel, archaic and modest in size, arose on St. Nicholas Hill, with its beautiful “Kulla” (fortress) in the center of the square in front of the 14th-century Frederician Castle, built according to the palace-tower type. Another important district, still called the “paper mill,” is where watermark paper was prepared for the official acts of the Bourbons and for printing paper money.
