Campobello di Licata: a Baroque foundation town in the Sicilian interior

Set on a plateau above the valley of the river Salso, in the heart of the Sicilian interior, Campobello di Licata is a hill town of around ten thousand people in the province of Agrigento. Unlike Sicily's ancient cities, it is a relatively young place, born in 1681 when a local baron obtained the royal licence to settle the land and gather farmers around his castellany.

Murals on the square

The town's most distinctive sight is its town hall, whose facade on the main square is covered with bold murals by the artist Silvio Benedetto, an open-air gallery that has become the symbol of Campobello. Facing it, the mother church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist guards a fine 17th-century crucifix.

Faith and the land

Campobello lives from its fertile fields and once from sulphur mining, and its calendar still turns on old traditions: in March the tables of Saint Joseph and a sacred play of the Flight into Egypt fill the streets, while in summer festivals of music and folklore animate the squares. The patron, Saint John the Baptist, is celebrated in June with processions and fireworks.

Getting there

Campobello di Licata stands about thirty kilometres east of Agrigento and its Valley of the Temples, close to Canicatti, with good road links to Palermo and Catania.