More than a castle, it could be considered a fortress, complete with a drawbridge, prisons, watchtowers, forges where weapons were forged, built on top

of a rock around the year 1080, partly excavated on the same rock and partly built on top of it, forming a single and homogeneous body. We are talking about the castle of Sperlinga, one of the most fascinating in all of Sicily, with a very panoramic view and not very suitable for those suffering from vertigo!

This castle became famous following the events related to the Sicilian Vespers, a popular revolt that broke out in Palermo in 1282 against the French Aragonese dynasty, which dominated the island from 1266, guilty of excessively cruel behavior towards the population, as well as having implemented a fiscal policy too oppressive. The revolt broke out on March 31, 1282 when, at the time of vespers, the French allowed themselves to offend a woman who had just married. Her husband, eaten by jealousy, killed an Aragonese soldier and this was the pretext to animate the revolt that spread over all of Sicily.
But it was precisely in the castle of Sperlinga that a French garrison found refuge who, together with a group of Sicilians, managed to resist the assaults for 13 months before finally capitulating. It is said that the people of Sperlinga, shut up in the castle with the French, to make the besieging Palermo squads believe they had rich supplies, rang the sheep bells as if there were still an herd and milked their women to make small caci which they threw out of the walls.