The excellences of the Sicans
Santo Stefano Quisquina,
returns after three years
the Cheese Festival
May 18 and 19 party big
among PDO pecorinos, show cooking
and the amazing show
of ricotta curd
If your passion is cheese, mark in red on your agenda the dates of the weekend of Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19. The appointment not to be missed is with the Santo Stefano Quisquina Cheese Festival, where, after a forced three-year hiatus, complicit with the pandemic and the past local elections, one of the area’s most interesting events is back, reaching its 22nd edition this year.
Among super award-winning PDO pecorino cheeses, caciottas, caciocavalli, show cooking with chefs from Bivova’s “Luigi Pirandello” hotel institute, and the many typical Quisquinian and local products to taste and take home, visitors will be able to witness the amazing spectacle of sheep’s ricotta curd, a true delicacy that can be enjoyed while still warm. On the other hand, we are in the City of Cheese, a recognition that Santo Stefano Quisquina obtained in 2020, thanks to a project coordinated byOnaf, the National Organization of Cheese Tasters, and theAcademy of Mediterranean Taste. And the mayor proudly points out that the best pastry shops in Palermo for the cream of their cannoli and cassatas use exclusively Quisquina ricotta.
“In Santo Stefano Quisquina,” says Mayor Francesco Cacciatore, “a village that, among other things, is part of the Gal Sicani and the Sicani Rural Quality District, two companies have obtained for two consecutive years, 2021 and 2022, the Onaf recognition for the best Sicilian Pecorino DOP. Our municipality, moreover, is the lead agency of the nature and religious route that connects Santo Stefano Quisquina to Monte Pellegrino, a route that allows people to explore and learn about the most genuine soul of our territory.”
Not only Sagra del Formaggio, then. The twenty-second edition of the event, which attracts admirers from all over western Sicily, will also be an opportunity to visit the small agro-pastoral village in the heart of the Sicani Mountains, over seven hundred meters above sea level, where this year there will also be celebrations of the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery and discovery of the sacred cave and epigraph of Santa Rosalia at Quisquina.
Not to be missed, the Baronial Palace built in the 17th century by the Ventimiglia family and the splendid 18th century fountain with four basins; the Purgatory Church and the adjacent 18th-century College of Mary; the Mother Church dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari, with its precious wooden crucifix, and the adjacent small church of St. Francis de Sales, known as theOratory of the Five Plagues, among the oldest churches in the country, with valuable stucco and friezes decorating both the vault and the walls; the 16th-century Church of St. Calogero on top of the mountain of the same name a little more than 900 meters above sea level, reachable only by a path through the woods. A few kilometers from the village is the Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo and Santo Stefano Quisquina, with the charming cave where, according to tradition, the saint lived for some time before going to Mount Pellegrino in Palermo, where she remained until her death. The hermitage of Santa Rosalia at Quisquina is part of theItinerarium Rosaliae, a route aimed at discovering the Sicilian hinterland, which runs between the provinces of Palermo and Agrigento. The route connects the Hermitage of Santo Stefano Quisquina with the Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia on Monte Pellegrino, through an itinerary that can be traveled on foot, by bicycle and on horseback, thanks to a network of paths made up of regie trazzere, mule tracks and disused railroads. In all, about 185 kilometers traverse the Sicani Mountains, among the reserves and natural areas of fourteen municipalities.
Among the gems not to be missed in Santo Stefano Quisquina is the Andromeda Theater, the tallest theater in the world, designed and built by the visionary Quisquina shepherd-artist Lorenzo Reina, and successfully presented at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
Text by Editors
