Rampinzeri Castle

The Rampinzeri manor house, improperly defined “castle’, lies on the slopes of Mount Finestrelle and was developed from an ancient Saracen farmhouse mentioned as early as 1132. However the building’s history is unknown until the XVII century, when it was rebuilt on the ruins of the pre-existing structure. Since that moment it has undergone diverse modifications and in the nineteenth century was bought by the De Stefani family. It was also mentioned in “The Leopard”, which highlighted its particularly strategic position. In fact, it was from here that king Vittorio Emanuele III, Umberto I, the duke Amedeo d’Aosta, the Military and the head of government Benito Mussolini observed the important operations performed by the Royal Army in the Belìce valley in 1937. The 1968 earthquake made it largely inaccessible but the complex was restored, first by the De Stefani family and later by the municipality, to which it currently belongs.