The inner center

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THE INNER CENTER  -  LITTLE STREETS  -  TUTELAR NUMEN  -  THE AEDICULE
 

City of Bronte

The inner center

Bronte offers, from the top of his hills, a unique landscape.
The houses, colored and attached, one top of the other, stand out among the mass of lava rocks, the rows of trees, the lightly veiled fields, the hills vanishing to the horizon.

Arrived in Bronte, coming from Catania, at the start of the Corso Umberto, here is the "Scialandro" where in ancient times they used to hang the outlaws sentenced to death.

It has a magnificent belvedere from which is possible to enjoy the view of Etna that dominates Bronte, the panorama of the green Simeto valley. with all his mountains, up to that highest in Sicily, mount Soro (1847 meters).

The old city center keeps almost unchanged the original town planning structure and the ancient, original cobweb of narrow streets winding through the most significant architectural components.

The old districts, with some characteristic Arab structures added to various architectonic elements, hug each other yet with small courtyards and narrow streets, around the churches that constitute, since the union of the 24 Casali in Bronte (1535 - 1548), the monumental references of Bronte's citizens: the church of SS. Trinità (la Matrice), Maria SS. of Soccorso and the sanctuary of the Annunziata.

In these pages we shall offer you a virtual stroll trough the most hidden corners of the Historic Centre of Bronte, and make you go along its alleys, narrow and tortuous street, its recurrent steep flights of steps, visit the courtyards, the underpasses, the valuable main doors, and the lava stone architraves of the noble palaces and the peasants’ houses, the tiny temples and all sorts of aedicule with lovely icons of the Virgin Lady that the deep religiosity of the Bronte’s people has erected during the centuries.
 

Tutte le strade di BronteIn the photos above, in b/w, old views of Bronte from different angles: in the one on the left you can see the mighty structure of the Real Collegio Capizzi and, on the left, the Palazzo Comunale still in the final stages of completion and, above, the Castiglione Prestianni Hospital. In the other two photos above, from the first half of the 1900s, the entrance to the town coming from Catania: in the background the majestic mass of Etna.

Up to a few decades ago, the entry to the town (coming from Catania) showed an ancient mill built by the Nelson, today replaced by a big block of flats that irreparably disfigures the landscape. It was the second "modern" mill built in Bronte; the first (fueled by coal) had been installed in a place near the Mother Church (in the square of the former jail). Another (placed near the Capuchin convent) was also operating as an electric power plant, to light up, "from the Ave Maria (dusk) for about two hours of the night", only the principal street (today, Corso Umberto). The rest of the lighting was left to oil lamps "except in the evenings of full moon".

Below, other images of Bronte. The first on the left is taken from the History of the City of Bronte by p. G  De Luca  (engraving by Angelo Colombo based on a drawing by Agostino Attinà) of 1883.


This typical underpass (the "Catoio") is located in via Madonna di Loreto; it was presumably built at the time of the forced unification of the 24 Casali ordered by Charles V (1535-1348).
Generally the Catoio led into a courtyard that housed several houses with families from the same Casale of origin, gathered together to better defend themselves from the incursions of bandits and marauders.
The oldest area of ​​Bronte is very close to this place and can be identified with the nucleus of houses built around the Church of Soccorso.

 

Visiting the historic center of Bronte you can still see the incontrovertible traces left by the Arab domination: in addition to the numerous topographical references of some areas (Piano Saraceno, Grotta Saracena, Cantera, etc.) or the large number of Arabic words present in the Bronte dialect (saia, ggebbia, frastuca, frastucara, ...), the many architectural and urban elements of the town are evidence of this.
A typical example is the characteristic sottoportico, a narrow passageway sunk under the houses (as in the photo below), a peculiarity of Arab buildings.

Via SantiCorso UmbertoTraversa via ImbrianiVia Prof. P. de LucaVia Leotta
Via Marco PoloFlight of steps in via FoscoloBalcony in the Manzoni streetPublic drinkin fountainThe cistern in the courtyard


            Translated by Sam BellaITALIAN VERSION

  

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