Donnafugata Castle
LOCATION: C.DA DONNAFUGATA
DATE: The current building dates back to the XNUMXth century.
SHORT DESCRIPTION: The Donnafugata Castle is about 15 kilometers from Ragusa, in the Donnafugata district. In reality it is not a real medieval castle but a sumptuous noble residence of the late nineteenth century surrounded by the dwelling of the peasants who lived in the employ of the owners. The building occupies an area of about 2500 square meters and is characterized by a large neo-Gothic facade, crowned by two side towers welcomes visitors. In 1648 what was once the fief of Guglielmo Bellio Cabrera was bought by Vincenzo Arezzo-La Rocca, former baron of Serri or Serre, who made it a country house. Most of the construction, however, is due to the descendant, Baron Corrado Arezzo, an eclectic scholar and politician. Through several generations, it came to Clementina Paternò Castello, widow of Viscount Gaetano Combes de Lestrade. Finally, after years of neglect and abandonment, in 1982 it was purchased by the municipality of Ragusa which, after long restoration works, made it usable again. The castle, divided on three floors, has over 120 rooms of which only twenty are now accessible to visitors and contain the original furnishings of the time. Around the castle there is a large and monumental park of 8 hectares.
Card insertion: Heritage Sicily
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Property included in the Multimedia Archive of Esoteric Cultural Heritage
The property has been recognised as having characteristics attributable to theCultural Esotericism. Group belonging: B
Methodological note:
The assets entered in the archive are divided into three groups, based on their level of recognition and documentation:
- Group A – Well signposted: This includes cultural assets identified as potentially esoteric. This is an initial observation phase, during which the asset is studied, compared with sources, and critically evaluated.
- Group B – Recognized asset: It includes assets for which there are reliable studies and documentation attesting to their belonging to the Esoteric Cultural Heritage, but which are not yet accompanied by the complete esoteric profile.
- Group C – Well documented: It contains fully recognized and analyzed items, accompanied by a detailed esoteric description illustrating their symbolic meanings, interpretations, and historical-cultural context. This is the most advanced level of documentation within the archive.
To ensure rigor and interpretative consistency, the archive is based on a rigorous methodology aimed at avoiding the indiscriminate inclusion of cultural assets. To this end, specific criteria are adopted: recognition tools and a classification system, illustrated in the project Archive of Cultural Esotericism, described on the external site Experiential itineraries, to which we refer for further methodological information.
