Historical centres: Grammichele

61 km from Catania - alt. 521m -   3,095 - pop. 14,524

The peasant neighbourhood of Occhiolà, which stood in the Terravecchia district (an ancient Hellenized settlement), represents the town's origins. The destruction caused by the earthquake forced the prince of Butera, Carlo Maria Carafa Branciforte, to refound the town on the current site. The new plan devised by the prince, with the help of the architect, Michele da Ferla, accounts for one of the most interesting features of the town. The urban layout is based on Renaissance radial models and has a regular hexagon as its basis. Three axes (Via Roma, Via Cavour and Corso Vittorio Emanuele) connect the midpoints of the hexagon's sides. The hexagonal Piazza Umberto I is the town centre and includes: the 1700s mother church ( San Michele) by Andrea Amato; the Palazzo Comunale, designed by Carlo Sada in the late 1800s and currently housing a plan of the city engraved by the architect Michele da Ferla. In the Terravecchia district there are the remains of Occhiolà and in the Mulino della Badia district there is a necropolis dating from protohistoric times.

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