Biancavilla

Photo © Affinità Elettive

Biancavilla (Zip Code 95033) is 176 Km. distant from Agrigento, 116 Km. from Caltanissetta, 33 Km. from Catania, which is the province it belongs to, 75 Km. from Enna, 128 Km. from Messina, 228 Km. from Palermo, 137 Km. from Ragusa, 91 Km. from Siracusa, 327 Km. from Trapani.

Photo © A.p.t. Catania 

The municipality counts 22.993 inhabitants , its surface measures 7.066 hectares, and its population density counts 325 inhabitants per square kilometre.

It rises over an internal mountain area, 515 meters above the sea-level.

The Town Hall is located in via Vittorio Emanuele, tel. ++39 095-7600111 fax. ++39 095-981947, toll free number 800505565 (only for italian residence).

E-mail address is: staff@comune.biancavilla.ct.it.

A big agricultural center, Biancavilla boasts a rich production of Indian figs, citrus fruits, almonds, and olives, that can be tasted during the annual Agricultural Fair held in the month of April.

Cattle breeding, as well as sheep and horse farms, are flourishing because of the vast pasture areas present throughout the territory.

The Artistic Handcrafts Regional Fair is characteristic, and is held every year in the month of July.

Photo © A.p.t. Catania 

The town's original name was Casale dei Greci because it was founded from a Greek-Albanian colony built there to escape the Turkish advancing. As of the XIV century, the suburb was given the current name Biancavilla.

The most noteworthy monuments are the Chiesa Madre, erected following a project by Carlo Sada (1809-1873), preserving a marvelous icon of the Madonna dell'Elemosina of Albanian origins, and the Chiesa del Rosario, both dated end of 1800.

Among the famous citizens of Biancavilla, there was the polyglot poet Antonio Bruno (1891-1932), who belonged to the futurist current and founded the literary magazine "Pickwick" in Catania,  and the famous humorist Giuseppe Coco, who is still alive, to whom a humorous book was dedicated in France, entitled "Coco est content".