Inici Castle in Castellammare del Golfo
The Castello del Monte Inici , in the territory of Castellamare del Golfo , is one of the oldest in all of Sicily .
It rises at the foot of the Inici massif, on the southern slope in the Val di Mazara. On its origins there are no certain documents and two hypotheses have been formulated: the first claims that the castle was the fulcrum of the mythological city of Inico, a pre-Roman settlement; the second was instead the center of another ancient city, that of Atala founded by Troiano Aceste.
Over the centuries it saw the succession of several owners: in one of the towers, built in the year 1000 as a of the tombstones of the castle, was hosted in 1535 Charles V of Habsburg; it was part of the fiefdom of Nicoletto Asmundo during the Swabian domination in Sicily; it was later bought by several families until the fiefdom passed into the hands of the Jesuits. Considerable expansion works were made and these were years of considerable prosperity. In 1767 with the expulsion of the Jesuits, the castle passed into the hands of other noble families, became the property of the Alliata family about a century later, and in these years the rooms of the internal courtyard were enlarged and renovated. Then after the earthquake of 1968 with the serious damage suffered the castle was abandoned.
Today of the castle, immersed in nature and surrounded by endless rows of vineyards, unfortunately only the ruins remain . In the central part of the castle, adjacent to the tower that connects the two courtyards, there is a chapel. From the seventeenth century this chapel, together with the castle and a portion of the barony, passed to the Jesuit college of Trapani who enriched it with stuccos and frescoes according to the canons of the Baroque. Some rooms of the castle with the adjoining chapel were in fact used as a place of retreat and religious asceticism, and in this sense the cycle of frescoed images is significant. Today these frescoes are preserved in the Mother Church of Castellammare del Golfo.
