Corleone is a small town and
comuneIn 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:...
of approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the
Province of PalermoThe 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:...
in
SicilySicily 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,...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
It is known primarily as the birthplace of several
MafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
bosses, some fictional, such as
The GodfatherThe Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
's
Vito (Andolini) CorleoneVito Andolini Corleone is a fictional character and the main character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather, as well as Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy, where he was portrayed by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and by Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II. Premiere Magazine listed Vito...
, and some real, such as
Jack DragnaJack Ignatius Dragna was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 1900s. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States...
,
Giuseppe MorelloGiuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello , also known as "The Old Fox", was the first boss of the Morello crime family and later top adviser to Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. He was known as Piddu and his rivals the Castellammarese knew him as Peter Morello...
,
Michele NavarraMichele Navarra was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was a qualified physician and headed the Mafia Family from the town of Corleone...
,
Luciano LeggioLuciano Leggio was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone...
,
Leoluca BagarellaLeoluca Bagarella is an Italian criminal and member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone and was a member of the Corleonesi.-Biography:...
,
Salvatore RiinaSalvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...
and
Bernardo ProvenzanoBernardo Provenzano is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and is suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the village of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi of the entire Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in 2006.His nickname is Binnu u tratturi...
.
The local mafia clan, the
CorleonesiThe Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca...
, led the Mafia in the 1980s and 1990s, and were the most violent and ruthless Mafia clan ever to take control of the organization.
History
During the
Emirate of SicilyThe Emirate of Sicily was an Islamic state on the island of Sicily , which existed from 965 to 1072.-First Arab invasions of Sicily:...
, the city was known as
Qurlayun. The Normans later achieved prominence after
their conquest of SicilyThe Norman conquest of southern Italy spanned the late eleventh and much of the twelfth centuries, involving many battles and many independent players conquering territories of their own...
.
A lookout tower built between the 11th and 12th century, known as
Saracena, still stands. The view from the tower includes the
Cascata delle Due Rocche, a sheer drop following the path of the Corleone river.
At one time the town was surrounded by defensive walls that connected the
Castello Soprano and
Castello Sottano. The latter is better preserved than the
Soprano, but it cannot be visited since it serves as a Franciscan retreat.
Corleone was known as
“Courageous Civitas” because of its position on the front line in all wars fought in Sicily. Halfway between Palermo and Agrigento, the town controlled one of the main arteries and was therefore one of the most strategic locations on the island.
Corleone was largely repopulated by
GhibellinesThe Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states...
from
Alessandria-Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum...
(modern Piedmont), Brescia and elsewhere - "Lombards" led by one Oddone de Camerana - when it became obvious that emperor
Frederick II of SicilyFrederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
could not prevail over the
GuelphThe Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states...
-leaning Lombard communes in the middle of the 13th century.
Corleone became a royal property around the end of the 14th century, and later passed into the feudal holdings of Federico Ventimiglia.
Remarkable demographic growth was reported in the 15th and 16th centuries, following the arrival of several religious orders.
In 1943, the
Duke of AostaIn the mid-13th century the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II made the County of Aosta a duchy; its arms were carried in the Savoyard coat-of-arms until the unification of Italy in 1870. The region remained part of Savoy lands, with the exception of a French occupation, 1539—1563...
created the title of Count of Corleone, awarded to Arturo Faini for his merits in the
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
occupation of
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
.
Main sights
The
Chiesa Madre (“Mother Church”), dedicated to the 4th Century French Bishop St.
Martin of ToursMartin of Tours was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued, and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints...
, was started in the late 14th century. Its appearance today has been influenced by numerous changes and renovations. Its interior has a nave and aisles divided into various chapels containing precious artwork, including a wooden statue representing San Filippo d’Agira from the 17th century, a statue representing San Biagio (16th century), and a fine marble panel depicting the
Baptism of Christ from this same period.
The
Chiesa dell'Addolorata is a church of the 18th century, dedicated to the Basilian abbot and patron saint San Leoluca, the
Chiesa di Santa Rosalia, and the small
Sant'Andrea (the latter two from the 17th century), all with important frescoes and paintings, are notable landmarks. The
Santuario della Madonna del Rosario di Tagliavia, a religious building from the 19th century, is now a destination for pilgrims on Ascension Day.
Corleone today
Beginning in the 1960s, the town became infamous for its
MafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, being the town in which some well-known clans had their headquarters (the
Clan dei CorleonesiThe Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca...
).
The most notable recent event in Corleone was the arrest in 2006 of
Bernardo ProvenzanoBernardo Provenzano is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and is suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the village of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi of the entire Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in 2006.His nickname is Binnu u tratturi...
, "
Boss of BossesCapo di tutti capi or capo dei capi is Italian for "boss of all bosses" or "boss of bosses". It is a phrase used mainly by the media, public and the law enforcement community to indicate a supremely powerful crime boss in the Sicilian or American Mafia who holds great influence over the whole...
", who had been in hiding for more than 40 years. This gave rise to much celebration. "
Liberation DayLiberation Day is a day, often a public holiday, that marks the liberation of a place, similar to an independence day. Liberation marks the date of either a revolution, as in Cuba, or the end of an occupation by another state, thereby differing from independence in the meaning of secession from...
" on April 11 (the date of Provenzano's capture) and naming a street "11 Aprile" shows just how much the arrest has affected Corleone. Gaetano Riina, Corleone's recent mob boss, was arrested on July 1, 2011.
In literature and film
The name of the town was used as the adopted surname of the title character in
Mario PuzoMario Gianluigi Puzo was an American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, including The Godfather , which he later co-adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola...
's book and
Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
's film
The GodfatherThe Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
. In the novel,
Vito AndoliniVito Andolini Corleone is a fictional character and the main character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather, as well as Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy, where he was portrayed by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and by Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II. Premiere Magazine listed Vito...
emigrates from the village of Corleone. In the theatrical release of
The Godfather, Part II, young Vito is assigned the Corleone surname while passing through immigration at
Ellis IslandEllis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
. Shy and unable to speak English, Vito is unable to respond when asked for his proper name and is given the last name Corleone by an immigration official. Throughout the
film seriesThe Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, various members of the
Corleone familyThe Corleone family is a fictional Sicilian Mafia family settled in New York City. The family was created by Mario Puzo and appears in his 1969 novel The Godfather, as well as the acclaimed film trilogy of the same name directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The family was founded by Vito Corleone , who...
visit the town.
Michael CorleoneMichael Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novels, The Godfather and The Sicilian. He is also the main character of the Godfather film trilogy that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, in which he was portrayed by Al Pacino, who was twice nominated for an Academy Award for his...
is played by
Al PacinoAlfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
, whose real-life maternal grandparents were Corleonese.
The US TV drama series
The SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
is named after the 'Castello Soprano', which is situated near Corleone.
See also
- People from Corleone
- Mafia members from Corleone