History of Realmonte

Realmonte, together with other areas of Sicily, was founded as part of the territorial structural modification due to the " Ius or licentia populandi" through which the Sicilian nobility of the time had the royal privilege to found new villages with agricultural vocation because of the need granary supply of local populations in the seventeenth century.

In 1650 it belonged to Giovanni Platamone, Duke of Castrofilippo and  Mendola, who then sold it to Giovanni Monreale, by whom the city took its name, or “Monte Reale”] ["Mount Royal"], later changed to "Realmonte " [" Royal Mount"]. In 1680, Giovanni Monreale populated his feud of Mendola  by drawing a number of farmers and settlers from the nearby municipalities and  in the late seventeenth century the church of St. Anthony and castle were found.

The village houses were born around the church, that is, in the plain of “ Carracini” and then the village expanded into the plain to the north. In the late nineteenth century  a new mother church was found, dedicated to Saint Dominic,  the patron saint of the town, while the old castle was used over the centuries as a prison and barracks. The area of Realmonte, and in general the surrounding of Agrigento  was  a fertile land and a largest producer of wheat, already in Roman and Medieval times; thanks to the port of Agrigento, the hinterland became a pivotal point not only for production but also for the wheat trade. Al Idrisi tells that "[...] the territory of Agrigento was noted for the abundance and variety of its productions and its hinterland was strewn with farm-houses [...]" (See M.S. Rizzo, "The Medieval Settlement in the Valley of Platani ", 2004:  28 ff.).

The important study by Professor Rizzo  also briefly outlined the contours of the  Realmonte area in  the Middle Ages, very close to the sea and for this reason marshy, but which today  presents some finds of settlement in the "Contrada Fauma", "[...] a large district located between the towns of Realmonte and Siculiana,  about 4 km from the sea. This  site,  identified in the territory of Realmonte, occupies the southern slopes of Monte Mele  (...) Here were found large fragments of blows (...)  and five graves dug into the chalky rock (...) Most of the finds date from the Roman Empire, while the tiles date back to medieval times (...) Here was located the farm-house called "Fauma" [...]" (See pp. 60-61). Although the area was difficult for the settlement "the evidences attest  the presence of many farm-houses (...)

We mention the site of Capo Rossello and the Roman Villa of “Durrueli”; we have also been identified two small Greeks  settlements  along the coast between Siculiana and Montallegro "(see p. 140 and note 97). With regard to the etymology of "Realmonte", since the name derives from Baron  Giovanni Monreale, the founder of it, the meaning is clear; “Realmonte” is simply "Monreale" reversed ". Douglas Sladen writes ...: [...] Realmonte a town 2 hours by mail-vettura from Porto Empedocle on the Girgenti Line. Realmonte is Monreale reversed, just as Montechiaro in the same districyt is Chiaramonte reversed” […]"(see Douglas Sladen, “Sicily”, p. 266). Realmonte therefore in the Middle Ages did not exist, but many settlements in the area were called "Civita" (“town”), because [...] the only clue (…) could be the persistence the name 'Civita', attributed by the inhabitants to a flat land near Realmonte [...]" (See "Archaeological Sicily", 1998, n. 31:  82). In the Middle Ages Realmonte therefore could coincide with one of the many "civita" of the territory.