Municipality of Castellana Sicula

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Municipality of Castellana Sicula

• ITALY

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• Castellana Sicula is located at 100 kilometres
  from Palermo (the capital of Sicily).
• It counts about 3.600 inhabitants, with a
  prevalence of women (about 1.900 units).

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Population
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Schools in Castellana

• 1 Middle school
• 2 Nursery schools
• 1 Primary school
• 1 Superior Institute of Agricultural Studies.

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Youth organisations

• One no profit organisation managed by church
  representatives
• 3 Cultural origanisations
• 2 youth no profit organisations, managed by young
  people living in Castellana Sicula.

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Critical state of the present social situation

• General population ageing
• High rates of unemployment, above all of youth
  and women
• High level of immigration (caused by
  unemployment)
• Financial weakening of Municipalities
• Diffuse parish quarrel each municipality acts
  as a single, and not in network with the other
  municipalities.

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Positive aspects

• Cultural, historical and anthropological heritage
  (famous at regional and national level)
• Very important landscape, natural resources and
  architectural goods
• Very good gastronomic specialities and local
  sweets
• Numerous folkloristic and religious events.

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Historical information

• Castellana Sicula became an autonomous
  municipality in 1948 (it was an administrative
  division of another municapility for 200 years)
• During the 1700, peasants of the land established
  their houses in the Castellana land thank to its
  good climate conditions and landscape properties.

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• The name of Castellana Sicula was done by the
  feudatory of the period, Duke of Ferrandina,
  because of his wife origin she came from the
  royal family Castellana of Spain.

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Religious event

• One of the main religious event in Castellana is
  represented by the pilgrimage to the shrine of
  Madonna dellAlto (that is, a Madonna shrine
  located on the top of a high mountain). The
  pilgrimage occurs each first Sunday of July.

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• The legend tells that the Madonna statue was
  discovered in the sicilian sea costs in 1471.
• It was loaded in a ox cart.
• In principle, it was decided to put the statue
  in a small church of a close village. But, during
  the way, the ox went on without any pauses, and
  stop its way just in the top of the high
  mountain.
• So, people decided to establish the shrine
  there, and no more in the small church selected
  before .

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Archeological goods

• Castellana has some important archeological
  goods, such as a roman necropolis, country
  houses, and a particular building similar to
  roman thermae. History tells that during the 70
  B.C. Cicerone visited the land in order to verify
  the social condition of sicilian peasants and
  servants.

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Natural Park of Madonie

• Castellana is one of the 15 municipalities
  within the Park of Madonie, one of the most
  important Park in Italy and Europe.
• Here we can find the abete dei Nebrodi (Abies
  nebrodensis), a particular tree, unique exemplar
  in the world. This exemplar each year attracts
  researchers and scientists from all the world.