Castellammare del Golfo (Castellammare del Golfo)
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Heading upwards from its marina/harbour called "Cala Marina", with many restaurants and bars, the urban plan is made of steps and winding streets that lead to Piazza Petrolo in one direction or towards the main central gardens, where the town center lies with many shops, cafes and restaurants. The main street is called Corso Garibaldi. Castellammare del Golfo has been described as probably having the most beautiful peninsula in all of Sicily.
According to the opinion of historians and geographers such as Ptolemy, Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, Castellammare del Golfo was born as Emporium Segestanorum, port of Segesta, a nearby city which shared the same ordeals until its fall. The Arabs Invaded Castellammare del Golfo from 827 AD, and called it "Al Madarig", which means "The Steps", probably due to an uphill steep street leading from the harbour to the area of the fortified bastion. It was the Arabs who first built the castle fortress, later enlarged by the Normans. The building rose on a rocky outcrop near the sea, linked to the mainland by a wooden drawbridge.
Fishing has been important in Castellammare del Golfo since ancient times. Today the town's economy continues to be based on fishing with the addition of tourism.
The small town is also noted for having been the birthplace of many Sicilian-American Mafia figures, including Sebastiano DiGaetano, Salvatore Maranzano, Stefano Magaddino, Vito Bonventre, John Tartamella, and Joseph Bonanno. This is the origin of the Castellamarese war, fought by the Masseria clan against the Maranzano clan for control of the Underworld in New York City. During the height of Italian immigration to the United States, many residents from Castellammare del Golfo immigrated to New York City, and settled on Elizabeth Street in Little Italy, Italian Harlem, and Bushwick, Carroll Gardens and East New York neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York.
After World War II, many residents from Castellammare del Golfo continued to immigrate to New York City, this time, settling in the Gravesend, Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York as well as the Ridgewood and Middle Village neighborhoods of Queens, New York, the Morris Park section of the Bronx, New York and all throughout the borough of Staten Island.
In the past decades Castellammare del Golfo has become an important tourist location as it is conveniently situated between Palermo and Trapani.
Map - Castellammare del Golfo (Castellammare del Golfo)
Map
Country - Italy
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| Flag of Italy | |
Italy was the native place of many civilizations such as the Italic peoples and the Etruscans, while due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, the country has also historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures, who immigrated to the peninsula throughout history. The Latins, native of central Italy, formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People. The Roman Republic initially conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the Italian peninsula, eventually expanding and conquering a large part of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became a leading cultural, political and religious centre, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's law, technology, economy, art, and literature developed.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| CA | Catalan language |
| CO | Corsican language |
| FR | French language |
| DE | German language |
| IT | Italian language |
| SC | Sardinian language |
| SL | Slovene language |