Chiaromonte Castle - Favara

LOCATION: CAVOUR SQUARE

Built towards the end of the thirteenth century, perhaps on an unfinished construction of Swabian origin,^[2] its forms reflect Frederick's models.

The building was inhabited until the beginning of the seventeenth century, while in the eighteenth century the rooms of the kitchens on the sides of the ogival portal were used as a prison (during the nineteenth century those on the left were used as a criminal prison and those on the right as a civil prison. they have left numerous graffiti on the walls.

A crenellated tower that was located in the southwest corner of the external enclosure, mentioned in 1611, was renovated around 1820 and was demolished for the construction of the palace of Giuseppe Cafisi in the 1840s, together with a large Gothic portal ("portal greater"); at the same time the large cistern in the center of the enclosure was covered with pavement.

In the southern part the castle building is surrounded by a fortified enclosure which is formed by a regular quadrilateral contiguous, but only partially with the south wall of the current building, forming an irregularly octagonal figure with the latter. In the outer wall of the west side of the enclosure, near the south-west corner, there was a crenellated tower that overlooked the square in front of the castle. From the enclosure, the Gothic "main portal", also lost, gave access to the square.

The internal rooms of the complex are divided into two floors, the lower ones with barrel vaults set with ashlars and single-lancet windows. In its central nucleus, contrary to what one might think, it looks like a grandiose dwelling with marked residential, rather than strategic - military characteristics.

At the top left of the entrance portal, on the south side, there are two coats of arms, one of which (a shield with three lozenges on the head) refers to the Spanish family of Perpertus.

Source: Wikipedia

Card insertion: Heritage Sicily 

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