If you are ready to embark on a journey into the distant Middle Ages to live an exciting experience, you cannot miss visiting the ruins of a unique Norman abbey, immersed in the forest of Gratteri.
It is one of the oldest historical monuments in the village of Madonita, half an hour’s walk from the town center, through a natural landscape unspoiled. The appointment is at “Passo della Scala” – under the church of the Crucifix – where it begins a path that, for some decades, has been renamed the Via dei Premostratensi.
And you arrive in a lonely place, steeped in stories and legends, where a superhuman peace dominates but which, at the time of the foundation of the monastery, was to be a strategic point of intersection between two Roman roads very frequented by travelers and pilgrims.
The site is now a favourite destination for many visitors, both Italian and foreign who are heading to discover what might at first sight seem like a ruin, but which in reality is a milestone of the Norman Way in Sicily.
The church of the monastery of San Giorgio is indeed, a cultural asset of singular importance in the Sicilian landscape from the historical, artistic, spiritual and anthropological point of view. Its origins date back to the 12th century and are situated in a very complex and at the same time intriguing period of medieval history.
A priory founded by the Normans and entrusted to a French order, the Premostratensian monks, the only example in Sicily, then, in 1300, it was inherited by the Hospitallers of Jerusalem, better known as the Knights of Malta, who held it for several centuries as a commenda.
We will tell you a fascinating story of a Norman monument where facts really happened and unique legends are combined in a highly suggestive scenario that make the one of Gratteri a historical document of the Norman period ready to be included inside of the Unesco sites in Sicily.
For more details on the excursion and the route map, please visit the following link: eventi.visitgratteri.com
