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Castronovo di Sicilia

Municipality nestled in the green Sicani Mountains that allows us to rediscover an ancient Sicily thanks to the presence of rural buildings. 3,000 population.

Patronal feast of St. Basil Vitale, March 9

The patron saint St. Basil Vitale is celebrated with the “Triumph,” a solemn ceremony marked by the presence of numerous lanterns, flashlights and flashlights, which also carries in procession the picture of Blessed Elijah, who is celebrated on March 8 and who, according to tradition, was Basil’s nephew and contemporary.

On the feast day, the statue of the patron saint is carried on the shoulders through the streets of the village by the faithful who tilt it now to one side, now to the other, in a kind of dance propitiatory of a good harvest and generally auspicious.

To involve Castronovo’s faithful who have emigrated to the rest of the world, the feast of the patron saint is also celebrated on the first Sunday in August.

St. Joseph, March 19

In the late morning, the procession with the “Santuzzi” passes through the village and reaches the Mother Church for Holy Mass.

After the procession arrives at City Hall Square, where the “Holy Family” sits at the table to eat the thirteen traditional dishes.
Before starting, the pastor blesses the food and St. Joseph’s bread is distributed to the faithful.

The celebrations close in the afternoon with the procession of the wooden simulacrum of the saint through the streets of the town.

Holy Week

In Castronovo, Holy Week begins with the evocative Palm Procession that starts from the parvis of the Mother Church: the priest, usually the Archpriest, in red vestments, presents himself followed by the clerics and the twelve Apostles; among them, St. Peter with the keys and Judas with his thirty denarii.
After the blessing of the palms, the procession through the village begins with children in front followed by altar boys, then the child dressed in white with a lamb skin, the Cross in his right hand and a rope to which a lamb is tied, in his left hand.
It is a representation of John the Baptist and Christ the innocent Lamb.
This is followed by the Apostles lined up two by two, and, finally, the priest on the back of a donkey. To the sound of the brass band, we arrive at the matrix, at whose door the priest knocks. The rite concludes with the celebration of mass.
Very beautiful and characteristic on Easter Day is the “Resurrection.” Behind the high altar of the Mother Church, there is a large beam on which the statue of the Risen Christ is placed. Thanks to appropriate counterweights, at the moment of the Gloria, a lath is removed that allows the statue of the Risen One to rise, symbolizing Christ leaving the Sepulcher and rising gloriously.
The two morning processions, one with the Madonna and the other with the Risen Christ, which between two wings of the crowd, met triumphantly to the sound of festive bells and firecrackers, were very well attended.

Feast of the Most Holy Crucifix, May 3

It is the main festival of Castronovo di Sicilia. For the occasion, the wooden statues of all the saints parade together carried on the shoulders of the faithful.

Opening the procession is the statue of the patron saint St. Basil Vitale. Of note, the “coffin of the Annunciation,” a sculptural group depicting the Annunciation of Mary, which by ancient tradition is carried on the shoulders of the village children. Also of great value is the “coffin of St. George,” a polychrome wooden group depicting the saint piercing the dragon.
Both coffins are the work of the celebrated 16th-century sculptors Lo Cascio of Chiusa Sclafani.

Closing the procession is the coffin of the Most Holy Crucifix, carried on the shoulders of bearers wearing a characteristic uniform.

Madonna of Bagnara, second Sunday in September

The cult of Our Lady of Bagnara, “la Madonna di li jardinara” or Our Lady of the Farmers, derives from the Calabrian feud of Bagnara to which the Castronovese territory belonged in the 12th century, at the behest of the Normans.

In 1085 Roger ordered the construction of a monastery and church on the Bagnara promontory in Calabria, endowing it with vast estates in Sicily as well, including Castronovo.
It would seem that the Bagnara cult was the first of the Latin rite introduced into the territory and into a community of the Greek Orthodox rite, as indeed was all of Christian Sicily that had gone through the centuries of Arab domination.

Even today Castronovo di Sicilia is twinned with BagnaraCalabra.

Map of Castronovo di Sicilia

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PSR Sicilia 2014-2022 – Sottomisura 19.2
GAL Sicani – Azione 2.2.1 “Creazione di reti e messa a sistema delle strutture di ospitalità diffusa extra alberghiera in area rurale C e D”
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