Welcome to Carini Castle
AUDIO GUIDE(choose your language)
Dear visitor,
we welcome you to Castello di Carini.
This guide was created by the Jonathan Livingston Association odv, with the patronage of the Municipality of Carini, thanks to the funds of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Ministry of Culture included in Mission 1 (Digitalization, innovation, competitiveness, culture and tourism), ; and Component 3 (Tourism and Culture 4.0).
We are honored that you have chosen to visit this Castle, we will accompany you inside its rooms and tell you its story.
You will find other information tables like this located inside it along the visit route. Scan the QR CODE that you will find on each of them with your device, choose your language and enjoy this exceptional experience.
The Castle and its history
The Castle of Carini is one of the few buildings in Sicily that contains the best that can remain of Arab-Norman art, of the 15th and 16th century Catalan and Renaissance art and of the 18th century, it is located on a cliff at 170 meters above sea level.
The Castle is accessed through two large doors dating back to the 12th century: the first located in front of the Church of S. Vincenzo, with a pointed arch that leads into the medieval village, the second, which represents the real door of the Castle which is accessed via a semicircular ramp paved with cobblestones.
But let's tell his story.
We owe the first brief but important information on the castle to the Arab Edrisi, the geographer of the Norman King Roger, who in the 12th century mentioned Garinis being dominated by a recently built fortress, thus allowing us to fix, at least, the date of the construction. of its original nucleus.
The Castle of Carini was built by the first feudal lord Rodolfo Bonello the Norman, between 1075 and 1090, a warrior following Count Roger I of Sicily.
Architecturally, the medieval walls date back to the 11th and 12th centuries. Arab-Norman elements can be found in the second door of the castle, where the pointed arch extends its momentum.
In 1283 it became the property of the Abate family who began to transform the defensive structure for residential use. Having sided with the Chiaramontes in the dispute for possession of the crown, the Abbots were declared "felloni" and deprived of all their assets.
King Martin I, the new king of Sicily, in 1397 entrusted the Land of Carini to the "miles of Panormitano" Ubertino La Grua for the services rendered to him.
Ubertino had no male offspring and, in 1402, with the privilege of Martin the Younger (husband of Queen Mary) who participated in the drafting of the marriage contract, he married his only daughter Ilaria to the Catalan Gilberto Talamanca, thus giving life to the La Grua Talamanca which will remain in the possession of the barony of Carini until 1812. With baron Giovan Vincenzo La Grua Talamanca, from the mid-15th century the castle will be the subject of a continuous series of restoration and architectural evolution projects which will modify its use, from barracks to "palace" for the summer residence.
The last restoration took place towards the end of the 18th century, when Vincenzo IV La Grua was Prince of Carini and Archpriest Don Carlo Ballerini, his friend and collaborator.
The manor, however, is known, more than its complex and interesting building history, for having been the scene of the tragic end of Laura Lanza and her lover Lodovico Vernagallo, which occurred on 4 December 1563. A bitter story, the latter, handed down over the course of several centuries by popular poetry. But I will tell you about this story, during your visit.
I invite you to enter through the entrance door and continue your visit.