Trecastagni

Trecastagni (Zip Code 95039) is 212 Km. distant from Agrigento, 127 Km. from Caltanissetta, 13 Km. from Catania, which is the province it belongs to, 92 Km. from Enna, 89 Km. from Messina, 262 Km. from Palermo, 117 Km. from Ragusa, 71 Km. from Siracusa, 361 Km. from Trapani.

The municipality counts 7.722 inhabitants, its surface measures 1.896 hectares, and its population density counts 407 inhabitants per square kilometre. It rises on a coastal hilly area, 586 meters above the sea-level.

The Town Hall is located in piazza Marconi, tel. ++39 095-7020011 fax. ++39 095-7020004.

Aside from the agricultural production based on the cultivation of olives, fruit, wine grapes, and cereals, the town also manufactures lava stone handicrafts.

The inhabitants of Trecastagni have the town's name derive from the three patron Saints (Alfio, Filadelfo, and Cirino), called tres casti agni, meaning i tre casti agnelli (the three chaste lambs). However, the name actually does not have such religious meaning, but a botanical derivation (tre castagni - three chestnuts) instead, due to the rural territory. The town was owned by two important families: the Princes Di Giovanni since 1642, and the Alliata as of the first half of the XVII century

The Chiesa Madre, dedicated to San Nicola di Bari, is impressive: it is characterized by columns made of mountain Etna's lava stones contrasting the white surfaces of the walls, thus enhancing this peculiar effect. Noteworthy is also the Church dedicated to the Madonna della Misericordia, also called "del Bianco", the Chiesa di S. Antonio, and the Sanctuary of the three Martyr Saints.

Trecastagni is proud of being the home-town of three very famous members of the Ferrara family: the theologian Agatino (1770-1851), the chemist Alfio (1773-1829), and the notorious volcanologist Francesco (1767-1850), who taught at the University of Palermo and of Catania, and was nick-named "Plinio siciliano" (Sicilian Pliny).