What to see in Castelbuono, itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including the Ventimiglia Castle, the Civic Museum and the Matrix Old Church.
Tourist information
Located on the north side of the Madonie, at the foot of Pizzo Carbonara, Castelbuono was founded by the Byzantines and experienced its development from the fourteenth century, thanks to the will of the Ventimiglia family, who managed to make it become the most important economic center in the area.
Among the most interesting monuments are the medieval church of San Francesco, inside which there is the funeral chapel of the Ventimiglias, and the seventeenth-century Church of the New Matrix with remarkable baroque altars, a fifteenth-century crucifix and a splendid polyptych depicting the Madonna and Child with Saints, dating back to the sixteenth century.
The Church of the Old Matrix, which was built around the middle of the fourteenth century, in the place where a previous building stood, has a beautiful sixteenth-century Gothic portico with a remarkable Gothic portal leaning against the facade, while on the left there is the bell tower.
What see
Inside the four naves there are many valuable works of art, including sixteenth-century sculptures made by Gagini and his students, a spectacular sixteenth-century polyptych and The mystical wedding of Mary, a fourteenth-century fresco.
The crypt is beautifully decorated with a seventeenth-century pictorial cycle.
The castle, a grandiose four-sided construction, was built in the early fourteenth century at the behest of the count by Count Francesco I of the Ventimiglia family
Of particular interest is the Chapel of Sant'Anna, having a rich stucco decoration of the seventeenth century, depicting scenes from the life of the Saint.
Inside there is also the civic museum, which collects various archaeological finds, including specimens of plants, insects and fossils collected in the area.
