It overlooks the island of Favignana and is visible already from Trapani and also from Erice. In almost all panoramic photos taken him there in Favignana, Fort St. Catherine for some misnamed Castle.
The ancient castle built on top of the Monte Santa Caterina, 310 mt of height, which takes its name has a story as articulated all the stories of Sicilian memory. Know the story, however, it is not enough, occorre thoroughly understand per visit. This page will tell you how to get there and what to see.
In the ninth century the Saracens built a watchtower, but as usual, the Normans conquered once turned it into a fortress, then expanded by the then Lord of Favignana Andrea Riccio in the fifteenth century in the shape and size that we see today.
In the Bourbon period there locked up the rebels and was later used as a military garrison then later abandoned until today. What it does not deserve because I believe only one we can afford such a waste. In other European countries it would be an attractive place for tourism and instead…
But that's why you must visit… its abandonment of this place is the reason of the visit. You can live the moment following the end of World War II when, removed and discontinued all equipment, the military abandoned the fort. E’ everything was so, rusted by time and merciless work of the saltiness of the sea and the winds doors 365 days a year.
The visit is free, you can access the entire building, from the basement to the top of the terrace. There once was a chapel dedicated to St. Catherine then used by the cell in prison by the Bourbons. But careful… Every year there is someone who gets hurt and someone else ends the career of man here, maybe a little too lean (News that) !
But as it gets ? The walk is long and could also be very tiring but believe me it's worth it. For this reason better to start fresh in the early hours of the morning, in summer no later than 8:00, or the afternoon when the sun is behind the mountain. The difference is total, you get to zero 300 meters in a few very steep ramps and steps all paved in cobblestones.
To get there you must cross the beach of Praia, in town, take the road behind the Tonnara Florio Museum, going up to the mountains. After a couple of bends, which can also be reached by bike (for those who have trained calves…), you reach a crossroad on the left with the beginning of the stairway. At the foot you can be left the bike maybe attached to another…
From here you can begin to enjoy the spectacle of the Egadi.
Views that are beginning to wander from Trapani to Marsala, from Levanzo Erice feeling under your own eyes one of the two wings of the butterfly, as he defined Favignana a great Sicilian painter and artist, Salvatore Fiume.
If you go in late spring you can find asparagus and capers for embedded road between the bricks that form the steps of the retaining wall. The scents of the typical Mediterranean stain will envelop totally.
In an hour of walking you should comfortably get to the top. And there transformed into explorers but WATCH, the place is safe but dangerous… safe if you do indiscretions dangerous if you do them ! Watch out steps inside the fort and not lean out of the windows. There are no words to describe what you will find, but I try to tell.
Turning back toward the opposite side to find a ground floor entrance which leads to the inner court, rooms, large rooms full of victuals, pieces of wood of some antique furniture, pieces of torn and smashed windows to the ground. More inside small rooms, circular or square stairs that descend to the underground… but I stop them because I hear noises, surely animals that make their home beneath them, why disturb them ?
Date back I go out and visit the outside, an old disused radar, Military archeology anywhere ! spectacular panoramic views towards Marettimo and the other side of the island. Around it is all rusted ! I go over, I visit all floors, fires, mattresses, barrels of gasoline to old engines sown in the corridors, power generators that take up entire rooms, a bathtub sea view located on a stone in front of a window loft… that show was to be the local commander ! prime location, in the same room a rusty cot.
I climb yet are almost the terrace, Here there is a tower with pieces of transmission equipment by the military telecommunications museum.
Remember Maria Guccione, favignanese doc, of this corner of homeland history…
“I have a beautiful memory of the fort, when we used to climb up as a girl ” in a trip” and the soldiers who carried out their service there welcomed us with extreme kindness.
I would like to remind you that in the Bourbon period its horrendous dungeons hosted famous political prisoners. One of these was Don Gregorio Ugdulena (to which the island dedicated a road), Sicilian patriot, later became Minister of Education with the unification of Italy… The other was Giovanni Nicotera (other way) which became, after the unit, Interior Minister. When in the 1860 Garibaldi landed at Marsala, he also came to Favignana and freed the patriots who lived prisoners in the dungeons of the Castle in inhuman conditions. Until the sixties the Castle was a traffic light station. The young people who completed their military service went up and down on foot to come to the village, while a donkey led by a certain Figliomeni brought up the necessary provisions.”
I look to get higher and meet another explorer… but in jogging outfit… middle age, slender, accent “Nordic” my says “what a show… I come every year just to get here on honeycomb”, She takes me into a room that I had not seen and I proposed… facing side… close window and high… it seems that the wind pushes you inside so you do not see down… but coming with attention I lean and look… “that's why he wants to come here every year” I think !
We are on the terrace we know we click two photos type selfies, a pair of panoramic… and then bid farewell to the next year !
Go down with a bit of nostalgia… it's true what he said the “Nordic”… this place witch… just come down already miss you, but maybe it's a feeling that depends on whether there's life has another side… that of our origins living in “seabed” our DNA, man, the nature, colors, immensity, history, the views, the same that Phoenicians video, Greek, Latin, Arabs, Vikings, French, Spanish… it's down… reality !
This year return ! At Fort St. Catherine ! And I hope and MI WISH THAT ARE LEFT AS’ for eternity !
Giorgio De Simone
Photo © GiorgioDeSimone
