From San Mauro Castelverde (PA) to Cesarò (ME), a journey through Sicilian history and culture
The Brigands' Walk in Sicily
The path of the brigands in Sicily is a historical-naturalistic itinerary that is divided into 5 stages with 4 overnight stays. The route, approximately 105 km long, begins in San Mauro Castelverde in the province of Palermo, inside the Madonie Park, and ends in Cesarò, in the province of Messina, in the heart of the Nebrodi Park. The path passes through the municipalities of Gangi in the province of Palermo, Sperlinga, Nicosia and Troina in the province of Enna, Capizzi, and Cesarò in the province of Messina. A historical and memory journey aimed at rediscovering and making known places, events and characters of that area of Sicily where the phenomenon of brigandage manifested itself most, over a period of time starting from the first years after the Unification of Italy and reaching to the period of fascism, with the siege of Gangi by the prefect Cesare Mori in 1926, which marked a harsh defeat for the Madonie banditry.
First Stage
From San Mauro Castelverde to Gangi we discover the most beautiful villages of the Madonie, set in an area of rare beauty
Last Stage
Cesarò, a small town in the Nebrodi area, is also a privileged access point, known for its excellent dairy tradition
The work of Vincenzo Asero and Giovanni Nicolosi
returns an original reading of Maurino banditry
through the rediscovery of places that
they were its cradle and context. It doesn't seem like a coincidence, after all,
if the memory of the brigands who populated Sicily
western, and specifically the Madonie area, both
still today characterized by its spatial identity
precisely from the name, which follows that of the municipality of
San Mauro Castelverde, in the province of Palermo, from
which the gangs started.
What the two authors propose in these pages
it is a historical-naturalistic itinerary that follows the movements
of the robbers, focuses on their hiding places,
explore the locations of massacres and massacres, the areas of raids, the streets
of escape and the ravines of rest; a journey that tells
events and protagonists as it winds through the woods
and mountains, it touches several countries and transcends divisions
administrative offices of the island: from San Mauro itself it arrives at Gangi,
from here to Sperlinga, Nicosia and Troina,
in the Enna area; then again towards the Messina territories of Capizzi and Cesarò.
Il cammino dei briganti in Sicilia
Bonfirraro Editore - https://www.bonfirraroeditore.it
Authors: Giovanni Nicolosi, Vincenzo Asero