Caccamo
Encyclopedia
Caccamo is a town and comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

located on the Tyrrhenian
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....

 coast of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 in the Province of Palermo
Province of Palermo
The Province of Palermo is a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Palermo. The Province of Palermo has 82 comuni , 1,239,272 inhabitants, and is 4,992 km² .-External links:...

.

History

The official founding of Caccamo was not until 1093, when the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 began building the castle on a rocky spur overlooking a cliff. The castle itself is actually now being slowly converted into a conference center. On the ground level of the castle is a restaurant " A Castellana" .Submerged within the lake is a stone bridge built in 1307 on the road that once linked the town with Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

. The city contains an attractive 11th-century cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

, which was remodeled in 1477 and 1614. On the side of the cathedral are two churches. The Chiesa dell'Anime del Purgatorio (Church of the Souls of Purgatory) features some stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

 work in the eastern end and an 18th-century organ. In the downstairs are catacombs
Catacombs
Catacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...

where the skeletons of a number of townspeople lie in niches along the wall, a burial practice that lasted from the 17th century up to 1863.

Since the 1950s the town itself has lost almost half of its inhabitants to emigration. Caccamo holds some great views of the surrounding countryside, including the Rosmarina artificial lake, which was created by a controversial dam built in 1993.

External links

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