Lercara Friddi

Lercara Friddi (Zip Code 90025) is 72 km. distant from Agrigento, 89 km. from Caltanissetta, 200 km. from Catania, 108 km. from Enna, 261 km. from Messina, 67 km. from Palermo, which province it belongs to, 208 km. from Ragusa, 280 km. from Siracusa, 166 km. from Trapani.

The municipality has 7.794 inhabitants and its area is 3.727 hectares for a density of population of 209 inhabitants per square kilometre. It rises on an internal hilly area and is 673 metres above sea-level.

The Town Hall is in piazza Abate Romano, tel. ++39 091-8252643 fax. ++39 091-8213796, toll number free 800654133 (only for Italian residents).

The most important produced are cereals and vegetables, while the main breedings are cattle and sheep. As regards handicraft of particular importance is the wood and iron working.
Once in the local economy very important were activities of quarrying bound to sulphur mines present in the territory. This kind of activity now is no more practised.

The name of Lercara Friddi in part derives from Arabic Al Kara that means quarter and in part from Sicilian li friddi that means cold places. The very small town perhaps has Elime origins; this is testified by several finds of the VIII and VI century B.C..
The present centre was founded in 1605 by the Spanish nobleman Baldassare Gomez de Amescua and was placed in the feud of Friddi. All through the XVII century the village has been property of Scamacca family and later came in possession of Gravina family.

The Church of St. Giuseppe and the near College of Maria are places good to visit; they date back to the XVIII century and the Church of St. Matteo or of the Purgatory always belonging to the same period.

Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile (1878-1964) was a famous Lercarese jurist and politician who was also the Under-Secretary of State in 1920 and in 1921 together with Nitti and Giolitti. He was a declared anti-Fascist and in 1943 founded in Palermo the Movement for Indipendence of Sicily (MIS) and he was the leader.