Salemi
Salemi was known as Alicia (Halyciae)
in 272 BC when it went over to the Roman side in the war against
Carthage. The town then followed the same history as the rest of
Sicily until 827 when it was conquered by the Arabs who gave it its
current name of Salemi. The castle is first mentioned in the 1154
Book of Roger. This describes Salemi as ‘a castle situated
in an excellent position'. Quite clearly it existed by this
date. A fact that may be corroborated by the epigraphic
inscription engraved on the upper architrave of one of the windows of
the keep. This commences with a Maltese cross on a separate
square stone and then has the inscription in Lombardic letters
IC·N · C · R · I ···
. This could be deciphered in many ways. The most common
reading is I(esus) C(hristus) N(azarenus) C(rucifixus) R(ex) I(udeorum)
- Jesus Christ of Nazareth, crucified, King of the Jews. Another
common reading is I(n) C(hristi) N(omine) C(omes) R(ogerius)
I(nstruxit); which might translate as In the Name of Christ, Count
Roger Ordered this. Considering the spacing and as the IC is
obviously linked together, the former reading seems most likely.
Alternatively it could be any other acronym and have virtually
unlimited meanings. Regardless of what it means, and it is
meaningless to read too much into this text, at best it only dates some
structure in the vicinity to before 1130 when Count Roger (1105-30)
became King Roger I (1130-54).
This is due to the architrave does not belong to an original
window and therefore was inserted into the tower many years after its
completion.
Regardless of its foundation date, the castle must have been well over 100 years old when Frederick II (1198-1250) is alleged to have stayed here. King Peter
(1282-85) certainly resided at Salemi on 25 October 1282, while
assuming the Sicilian Crown after the Vespers. In 1296 the castle
was sold by Frederick III
(1295-1337) to Blasco Alagona (d.1301). It was later in the hands
of Henry Abbate, though whether father (d.1266+) or son (d.1327+) is
uncertain. From the Abbates the castle passed to Domenica Alvira
de Aversa. For this reason the fortress became known as Sala di
Madonna Alvira, a name it kept until the fifteenth century.
In 1325 the fortress was held for King Frederick III (1296-1337) when the Angevins invaded Sicily and took this fortress after their first conquest of Mazara and then swept on taking Sciacca, Caltabellotta, Corleone, Cattolica, Agrigento, Licata, Naro, Terranova, Caltagirone, Scicli, Modica, Syracuse, Noto, Buccheri, Ferla, Palazzolo, Avola, Ragusa, Augusta, Lentini and finally Ursino
at Catania. The castles were eventually recovered and the
Angevins repulsed, but the damage done to the kingdom was enormous.
In 1359, during the civil war, the castle was taken from troops loyal
to Frederick IV (1355-77), before Frederick himself with Count
Francesco Ventimiglia (d.1391) arrived and proceeded to take the castle
back for the Crown. During this confused fighting Richard Abbate
of Erice and Trapani was killed here. In 1375 King Frederick gave
the fortress to Atrale Alagona (d.1419) and from him it passed to the
counts of Moncada. On 2 April 1392, King Martin (1392-1409) and
Queen Mary stayed at the castle en route from Trapani to their
coronation at Palermo. At this time the fortress was owned by
Antonio Moncada (d.1411+), but was confiscated on his rebellion in 1397
and passed to Michael Imbo and then through various hands. The
castle remained inhabited and an inventory of 1630 includes a listing
for a painting by Van Dyck. The Italian tricolour made its first
appearance here, placed on the keep by Garibaldi in 1860. In 1968
an earthquake nearly brought the keep down which necessitated its being
wrapped with iron belts to stop its collapse.
Description
The castle stands on a commanding summit with the town of Salemi
huddling under its protective walls. It consists of a simple
rectangle with a tower at each corner, although the northeast tower has
gone, possibly having collapsed in the seventeenth century. The 2
southern square towers project boldly to the south, although neither
project much to cover the east or west fronts, the easternmost tower
actually being slightly flanked by the curtain! Further, the
towers are of different dimensions and styles. The southwest
tower has a single window seat to the west, while the southeastern one
has loops to east and west and a single window to the south as well as
mural stair in it's inner wall. The smaller tower only has some
internal, modern stairs and has a less elaborate plinthing.
Further the larger tower has a 2 external offsets, while both have
several crossbow loops, interspersed with windows on different floor
levels.
In the northwest corner stands a boldly projecting round keep of 3
storeys. This is entered via a curving external stair to the
east. This leads through a recessed doorway into a short
passageway from which stairs run up to the next floor and the octagonal
interior is reached. This has 5 loops, one of which is
blocked. Each floor is marked by an external offset and on the summit one
merlon survives with a loop looking inward to the castle. There
is no access from the keep to the curtain wallwalks. The
Lombardic inscription above the north window must be a later insertion
as the base of this window consists of an older crossbow loop.
Slightly off centre in the internally thickened west wall is a hole in
the wall gateway protected by a portcullis. The south side of the
enceinte contains the much reduced hall block, while a further building
stood in the northeast corner and is now reduced almost to its
foundations. This has a dog legged mural passage in the northeast
corner which led to a building outside the current enceinte.
Loops in the other 3 curtains to the hall show that these used to have
buildings standing against them. The castle masonry varies from
laid rubble to well coursed stonework and even some ashlar.
Why not join me at other Sicilian
castles? Information on this and other tours can be found at Scholarly
Sojourns.
Copyright©2023
Paul Martin Remfry