|
|
"I Gruttitti"
funerary cells in
the Contura district
Some characteristic
funerary cells in the Contura district, at few kilometres from
Bronte.
They are similar to those of “Difesa” and other close by
zones (Placa Baiana, Margiogrande, Mangiasarde,
Grotte dei
Saraceni, …).
They are excavations in the sand stone “a grotticella” (for Bronte “I gruttitti”) and were used to bury in them the dead
together with a rich kit.
This strange typology is found in various sand stone outcrops
between the Simeto’s high valley and the Alcantara’s middle valley;
is being studied now and it is thought, without positive proofs,
that could actually go back to the Byzantine period.
In another Bronte’s zone (Santa Venera district) some excavations,
carried out by the superintendence in 1987 and 1988, have brought to
light the remains of a boundary wall and of circular, square and
polygonal houses of probable prehistoric origin (medium Neolithic).
|
|
|
|
 |
The guard towers
One of many Guard towers made of loose lava stones picked
and piled up changing the space in some sort of cultivable ground. This, with a vaguely Mexican look, is found close to Bronte, in the Lombardo farm
("Masseria Lombardo").
Lacking fertile land, mostly owned by the Duchy and few others, Bronte’s
peasants, to be able to survive, were forced to try to cultivate the stony
land, to clear many lava flows and change them in areas for the
cultivation of pistachio. |
 |
|
They were helped in fact by this plant , born from the rock, that grows
spontaneously on stony ground and adapts itself for its rustic nature and
resistance to drought. With a very deep root system is able to push its
way trough the lava’s cracks and grow easily. Picking stones and piling
them up, during many centuries of hard work, the local farmers were able
to survive with this technique changing many sterile stony fields in areas
where could be produced small tasty fruits of extraordinary high quality. |
|
|
Monte
Barca
Monte Barca: This small volcanic
cone, opposite to the cemetery, adjacent to state road 121, few
kilometres from Bronte, is of extremely ancient formation.
Protected by mount Colla, has been always
spared from the centenary lava flows that have interested the
Bronte side and because of this remains still intact.
About it, Benedetto Radice says: «It is placed in a deep cone no
more than eight metres from the provincial road built in 1830.
Monte Barca is the second most deep Etna’s crater, so called
because is shaped like a boat.
Nobody knows the time of his formation; it
has an elliptical base.
The two widths in its interior mark the
direction from South to North.
The crater’s basin, made of reddish tuff and notable for fumes of
chlorine and sulphur, reminds the Naples sulphur’s mines.
From this tuff come small slates and little bright iron crystals.
The external mantle of the cone is made of a conglomeration of
plagidasio, angite and olivine fragments between which can be
found some material rich of white iron; the lavas around Catania’s
Fortino and mount Cerna are similar to this tuff.
In Monte Barca there is not a flowing of lava as in other
craters.
Strangely enough it is surrounded by sandstone in its base.
About 750 meters downward, over an horizontal plane 400 meters
long and 150 wide, there is a field of muddy tuff erupted mostly
from the same Mount “Barca”; there is also some gypsum.
About the sandy area in front, it is not known if the sand was
erupted by the crater of the nearby Mount “Barca” or from
the Etna’s crater.» A Monte Barca
O bel monte dalle agili forme di nave latina lanciata in alto
mare; adorazione costante de' miei primi anni, quando ne' giorni
sereni e lucenti, dal sommo della tua poppa o della tua prua,
assuefacevo ebbro l'anima giovinetta e ardente agli orizzonti
sconfinati che poi dovevo tentare; (…)
Una volta il vecchio
Etna, per star esso in riposo, volle divertire in altro modo ma
collo stesso spettacolo fiammeo, la sua gente.
Ti evocò, quasi per
incanto, in fondo a una sua lontana radice, dal nulla; t'infuse
parte dell'alito suo possente; t'improvvisò vulcanello in piena
attivittà; e poi, mentre tu, superbo, mostravi di prender molto
gusto all'impresa scherzosa, t'ordinò di sgonfiare d'un tratto
come bolla di sapone, facendoti assorbire il cratere eruttante ne'
fianchi. […]»
[Da “Terra di Fuoco – Leggende siciliane”, di Giuseppe Cimbali,
Euseo Molino Editore, Roma 1887] |
|
|
|
|
Translated by Sam Di Bella |
|
Visit Bronte's historic centre
 It is particularly interesting to
walk the little streets and the lanes, narrow and tortuous and
the flights of stairs of Bronte’s historic centre for the
presence of ancient buildings of a simple and pleasant
architecture, remarkable portals made of sculptured lava stone,
aedicules, votive icons and small sculptures placed over lintels
or the arch of houses. |
|
You are in:
The
