Western Sicily has plenty of captivating sites for the curious traveler, one such site is the Castle of Alcamo in the town by the same name.
Also known as the Castle of the Counts of Modica, which often causes it to be mistaken for being in the town of Modica, the medieval Castle of Alcamo sits on Piazza della Repubblica in the center of Alcamo.
The castle was built around 1350 by the Peralta family, at a time when barons fought for local power and control over the wheat trade, which was a major industry for Sicily. Due to its position by the sea, Alcamo was at the center of the wheat trade. The castle was completed by powerful feudatories Enrico and Federico Chiaramonte, who needed the castle to be not just a luxurious home, but also a fortress-defense. For this reason, it appears menacing, inaccessible and hostile on the outside, but, once inside, like many castles, it conveys a sense of tranquility and security.
With its sturdy size and thick walls, it protected the city and resisted for centuries against violent attacks, including the one from the infamous pirate Barbarossa.
In 1535 the emperor Charles V stayed there, a historic event for the small town of Alcamo. It was a possession of the Cabrera family, the counts of Modica, from 1410 until 1812 (hence the name of the castle). Later, during the Reign of Italy and until 1960, it was used as a prison.
The building has a rhomboidal shape, with four towers, two quadrangular and two cylindrical. In each tower, there was a torture room for prisoners, rooms for sentinels and for foreign guest sovereigns.
Today the castle houses the Ethnographic Museum and the Regional Enoteca.
