A double murder that at the time touched public opinion and caused great scandal, passed down to posterity in a little poem in Sicilian dialect entitled "The Bitter Case of the Baroness of Carini" - has consigned to popular legend the name of this castle, built between 1075 and 1090 during the reign of Roger II. In these very rooms, overlooking the Gulf of Carini, on the fourth of December 1563, Laura Lanza and her lover Ludovico Vernagallo were slain by her husband and her father, Don Cesare Lanza. Over the centuries the castle was much altered, especially by the Grua-Talamanca family. On the ground floor is the Salone delle Derrate (Provisions Room), later transformed into a library, where it is possible to admire two fine stone arches (15th cent.) supported by a stout pillar. On the upper floor, as one enters the Salone delle Feste (Festivity Room), also 15th cent., one is fascinated by the coffered wooden ceiling with characteristic stalactite decorative patterns in Catalan Gothic style. This room leads on towards the quadrangular tower, which is embellished with a two-light mullioned window crowned with consoles and plant decorations.

Details of the Carini Castle

(click on the photos to enlarge)