Mussumeli is located between Agrigento and Palermo and is a village of just over 10,000 inhabitants. Its castle was built around 1300 by the Sicilian nobleman Manfredi III Chiaramonte and is one of the most fascinating castles in Sicily . The Manfredonico or Musumei castle is in fact located on an isolated peak, perched at the end of a rock at 778 meters, of which it seems to be part of it. It was built in the fourteenth century on pre-existing Gothic-Swabian structures and modified in the fifteenth century. Let’s now go to discover this magnificent well-preserved castle, which will make you take a dip in the medieval past.
The visit of the castle
The tour of the castle takes about 1 hour and the ticket cost is about 5 Euro including the guided tour.
What to see
The things to see are many, like the hall of the barons (This is where the Sicilian barons probably met to agree and join forces against the Aragonese, ready to land in Sicily), the room of the three women (The name comes from a legend), the fireplace hall (where precisely there is an ancient medieval fireplace), the dining room, the underground room where the handmaids slept, the bedroom, the toilet and dungeons with prisons and torture chambers. Very nice view as well which can be enjoyed from the castle, on theEtna And on the hills and countryside of the Nisso region.
The medieval festival
Every year, on August 31 , and on the first and second day of September , a medieval festival takes place in the castle, with typical clothes, games, songs and dances, as if to recall the past.
Curiosity
Just below the castle was a squatter house from the 1970s that defaced the area. Do you think that in 2020 the citizen Sebastiano Misuraca, moved by love for his land, decided to buy it and put it down.
Ghosts and legends
The Manfredonico castle is also a place of mysteries . In fact, sightings of ghosts by tourists and the keeper himself are told and legends are told such as that of the 3 women, who gave the name to one of the rooms of the castle. It seems that Prince Federico and his three sisters lived in the castle : Clotilde, Margherita and Costanza. The prince had to go to war and decided to put the three women in safety by locking them in a room along with food. The war, however, lasted longer than expected and the poor women starved to death in that room .
Another legend is that of a young Spanish soldier Guiscardo de la Portas who fell in love with the daughter of Baron Manfredi, owner of the castle . The latter annoyed by the offense decided to lock him up in the castle and make him die of hunger. The young man, however, to escape that terrible sentence, decided to commit suicide by jumping from the tower . From which day his ghost seems to still revolve in the castle.
Localization and reviews
What to see in the surroundings
The Manfredonico castle is located in the province of Caltanissetta. Here you will find the most beautiful places to visit around Caltanissetta .
Typical dishes of Caltanissetta and surroundings
If you are interested in eating typical dishes in the Caltanissetta area (of which the castle is part) I list you here what to eat in Caltanissetta and surroundings.
Here instead you find the typical Sicilian dishes in general.