CASTELVECCHIO
SICULO
Casalvecchio
Siculo is a town in Messina province, standing at 400m a.s.l. and
counting about 1,700 inhabitants. It lies on an area of naturalistic
interesting, being close at hand to the Messina Strait, and not
too far from the Etna volcano, Calabria and the Agrò Creek
Valley.
Some
Arabian features are recognizable in the town heart. Since the 1100’s
down through the 1700’s, it was included in the administrative
territory of the neighboring Savoca.
The
Chiesa Madre is particularly noteworthy. Dedicated to St. Onofrio,
it retains a fine marble floor and wooden ceiling of a former building
upon which the church was built, a fine holy-water font bearing
the date of making – 1686 –, a 1600’s painting
depicting the Adoration of the Magi and a 1600’s wooden bust
of the Titular Saint. The rectory houses a little museum displaying
a precious panel portraying San Nicolò in cattedra, a 1600’s
canvas of the Gloria della Croce and another of the same epoch depicting
the Whitsunday, and some silver plates.
A
Norman church dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul is situated in
the city environs near the Agrò river, attached to a Basilian
monastery of the same epoch. A Greek inscription within the building
reveals that the present structure results from a re-construction
made in 1172. It has a fine frontage. Inside, it is divided into
arcades, the central of which has two domes.
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