This fortress stands on a rocky crag in the Nebrodi Mountains that is riddled with caves - its name comes from the Latin "spelunca", meaning a deep, dark, natural cavern. Sperlinga Castle, built around 1082, makes full use of the rock base it is built on, consisting as it does both of rooms dug out of the great crag, featuring unfinished stone pillars, and of architectural structures built over its sides. The castle is on many different levels: the stables, the prisons, and the smithies where the arms were forged were located in caves dug out of the living rock. Also in the rock itself, but at a lower level, there were caves used as granaries. In this modern day and age, evidence of the castle's former glory is to be seen in part of the ancient walls, a two-light mullioned window considered a national monument, the Prince's reception hall, the chapel, and a steep stairway cut out of the stone that leads to the look-out tower, from which one can enjoy a 360-degree view over the plain of Gangi, with the massif of the Madonie Mountains to the rear and the Nebrodi Mountains to the north. Sperlinga Castle was the scene of a long siege in 1282, during the War of the Sicilian Vespers. Here the Angevins took refuge and for thirteen months held out against the forces of the Sicilian rebels.

Details of the Sperlinga castle

(click on the photos to enlarge)