Enna...back home.....Villa Isabella

This town of Enna is full of history...you can feel it..smell it...its all around you.......the following should explain just how old this place is: HISTORY

Enna is in a position of splendid isolation: it is the highest provincial capital in Italy, in a beautiful and unusual location. Archaeological finds attest that the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Later it was an indigenous centre: first Sican and then Sicel. In the 7th c. BC it began to assimilate Greek culture through the influence of Gela, and in the 5th c. BC the town was completely Hellenized. In the 4th c. BC it was conquered by Dionysius I and then by Agathocles, tyrants of Syracuse. During the first Punic war, Enna was occupied first by the Carthaginians and then by the Romans (258 BC), who declared it a free municipium. It was at Enna that in 139 BC, under the Romans, the first Slaves' Revolt in history broke out, led by the slave Eunus. When at the end ofthe Roman period the town passed to the Byzantines, tbey made it a stronghold in their system of defences, in view of its advantageous strategic position. This explains why the Arabs were not able to capture it until 859 BC, and tben only through an act of treachery . In this period its original name was changed to Castrogiovanni, which it kept until1927 .The city flourished under Muslim rule: agriculture and trade were once again tbriving activities. This continued under Nornan rule (1087), when Count Roger left a strong garrison and increased its fortifications. In the Aragonese period it received particular privileges and it was here that Frederick II of Aragon assumed the title of King of Trinacria (1314) and summoned the first parliament (1324). Testimonies of this age still remain the Castello di Lombardia and the so-called Torre di Federico ("Frederick' s tower"). In modern times Castrogiovanni followed the general vicissitudes of Sicily. In 1926 it was raised to the status of provincial capital. I get to be part of the history moving forward from today......