Sutera Villages in Italy
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Sutera is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Palermo and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) west of Caltanissetta. The area is dominated by a large monolithic rock termed "The Mountain of San Paolino". Upon this mountain sits the bones of the patron Saints of the town, San Paolino and San Onofrio. On the Feast of San Onofrio, almost all those in the town walk to the top of the mountain, as a pilgrimage to the saints. Sutera holds the award of "bandiere arancioni"[1] from the touring club Italiano. Sutera is currently the only place in Sicily to hold this accolade, which is awarded to touristic areas of excellence. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,649 and an area of 35.5 square kilometres (13.7 sq mi).
Since 2014, Sutera has augmented its fast-dwindling population with dozens of asylum seekers. The school has been reborn; the butcher and grocer are happy with the growth in turnover; the birthrate has rocketed. “In the 1970s, Sutera had more than 5,000 inhabitants,” the mayor of the town, Giuseppe Grizzanti, tells the Guardian. “By the 1980s we were 4,000, and 3,000 in the 90s. Every year Sutera lost 300 citizens, due to unemployment. The houses emptied, the shops closed and [we] risked becoming a ghost town.”
Sutera comes from the ancient Greek soter, meaning “salvation”. Tucked into the slopes of a remote mountain, it made an ideal refuge during times of war. Now that ancient purpose is being revived. To Italy’s surging anti-immigrant right, the community represents a 21st-century catastrophe: the displacement of Italians by foreigners. But to local people, it represents an older Sicilian story: of migration and flight from war, and the commercial opportunities those movements bring.
Sutera is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Palermo and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) west of Caltanissetta. The area is dominated by a large monolithic rock termed "The Mountain of San Paolino". Upon this mountain sits the bones of the patron Saints of the town, San Paolino and San Onofrio. On the Feast of San Onofrio, almost all those in the town walk to the top of the mountain, as a pilgrimage to the saints. Sutera holds the award of "bandiere arancioni"[1] from the touring club Italiano. Sutera is currently the only place in Sicily to hold this accolade, which is awarded to touristic areas of excellence. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,649 and an area of 35.5 square kilometres (13.7 sq mi).
Since 2014, Sutera has augmented its fast-dwindling population with dozens of asylum seekers. The school has been reborn; the butcher and grocer are happy with the growth in turnover; the birthrate has rocketed. “In the 1970s, Sutera had more than 5,000 inhabitants,” the mayor of the town, Giuseppe Grizzanti, tells the Guardian. “By the 1980s we were 4,000, and 3,000 in the 90s. Every year Sutera lost 300 citizens, due to unemployment. The houses emptied, the shops closed and [we] risked becoming a ghost town.”
Sutera comes from the ancient Greek soter, meaning “salvation”. Tucked into the slopes of a remote mountain, it made an ideal refuge during times of war. Now that ancient purpose is being revived. To Italy’s surging anti-immigrant right, the community represents a 21st-century catastrophe: the displacement of Italians by foreigners. But to local people, it represents an older Sicilian story: of migration and flight from war, and the commercial opportunities those movements bring.