Raffadali is a comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

(municipality) in the Province of Agrigento

Province of Agrigento

Agrigento is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. It has an area of 3,042 km², and a total population of 454,370...

 in the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 region Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, located about 80 km south of Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

 and about 10 km northwest of Agrigento

Agrigento

Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden...

.

Prehistoric

The story of Raffadali vanishes into the mists of prehistory, the origins of these distant but find themselves still interesting traces that bear witness to the continuity of human presence since the Neolithic superiore.Resti huts, ingrottati, clay remains, and even more significant and rare lithic sculptures (The Venus of Busin) indicate that in the large territory in which the site is Raffadali today, the man lived and he was able, time and intellect to devote himself to meditation artistica.Raffadali understood not as a settlement but as an urban area inhabited agricultural land had to be more discreet pastorale.La soil fertility, the variety of nature, from rock sites, the valleys to the veins of fresh water or spring, lent themselves to this target is still alive today.

Middle Ages

The Arabs have come around the first quarter of the ninth century brought a new civilization introducento agricultural cultivation of citrus fruits, the rose (pear, apricot, pistachio) and perhaps the carob, organize and implement the collection and channeling of scarce and therefore valuable, water reserves, which had introduced a new pastry as a major component of almond and pistacchio.La Arab presence is strong overlaps with the primitive culture locale.Etnicamente causes an increase in generation, is still found within carratteri somatic population (not only raffadalese ). It 'at this time born Raffadali (perhaps by Rahl-Afdal). In the Arab rule, after nearly two centuries, it happens that Norman brings his own civilization, but absorbing, with intelligence and moderation, that of the power of predecessori.Al siaffianca conquerors, when not opposed, that of the organized church, rooted firmly in the consciousness religiosa.E 'at this time that the feud takes on the characteristic of district policy, agricultural and socio-economic on it exercises the widest powers the Lord, subject only to the central power, the sovereign (Norman and Swabian, then Angevin, Aragonese and ect.) Raffadali into a large estate granted in the eleventh century to Montaperto.
Renaissance

The modern town was founded on the ruins of the old farmhouse. In 1507 Peter King Ferdinand Montaperto obtained from the "ius populandi" for the expansion of the urban sprawl, and began work on the consolidation of the castle and the construction of the Cathedral. In 1649 Giuseppe Nicolò Montaperto, intervened to quell a revolt against the bishop of Agrigento Trajna accused of forcing the population to starvation. To reward the courage and loyalty Montaperto, Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

 distinguished family of feudal Raffadali the title of Prince, also raising the estate to the rank of prince. The last gentleman was Raffadali Salvatore Montaperto Valguarnera.

Between 700 and 800

We are at the beginning of urbanism in places where the only expressions were planning the dirt road with a fountain, the church, the profound political castello.Le that between late 700 and early 800
change the face of European states, involving Sicily and mark the structural changes inspired by new principles of liberty, and the need for a different distribution of wealth goes down feudalism; Raffadali, from the village feud, slowly transformed into a rural village owners of small and medium remaining in the old feudal villages on the right long-term leasing of the fund.

800

The winds also blow up in '48 revolutionaries Raffadali that with a political conscience surprising, given its origins and established feudal customs, participate in the movement for Italian lìindipendenza and the separation from Spain, to which the Bourbon dynasty of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies label certainly fittizia.Anche Raffadali plebiscite to vote for the admission to the Kingdom of Italy. However, the agricultural economy does not improve because the large estate is transformed into a mosaic of patches of land Insufficient by itself to ensure well-being of each propritario . But the feuds minors (ie those that do not constitute the territory over which the prince invested very broad powers exercised by the sovereign, including those relating to civil justice and in part to the criminal) had remained in the hands of large landowners, who despite having well-organized contatini kept their exploitation in miserable conditions.

The fascist

The period between the two world wars marked a period of stalemate in the life of Raffadali where a modest middle class consolidated its position through prudent administrative provisions of a small (but not tiny) land ownership and the pursuit of professions liberali.Il fascism promises new horizons to the proletariat but the Second World War farmers Raffadali brutally shows the reality of a misery ever so lenita.Fervono peasant movements for the overthrow of the remaining large parcel of land ownership and land.

50 years

Agrarian reform can separate the large estates, but the four acres per person assigned to each farmer end up not being useful because the processing techniques of cultivation it requires the adoption of mechanical means, to be disposed of commercially competitive production.

External links

• Official website