What is Montalbano Elicona known for?

Won the RAI Borgo dei Borghi competition in 2015, which brought the castle and the Argimusco plateau into wider circulation. Plateau of large eroded sandstone formations twelve kilometers from the village, called the Sicilian Stonehenge in the local press. Frederick III of Aragon's summer residence between 1302 and 1308, where the king brought physician Arnaldo da Villanova to treat his gout.

Where is Montalbano Elicona?

Montalbano Elicona is a comune in the province of Messina, Sicily region of Italy, about 73 kilometers from Messina.

Sicily · Messina

Montalbano Elicona

A Nebrodi castle town at 907 meters, Frederick III of Aragon's summer residence and gateway to the Argimusco megalithic plateau.

907m

Elevation

73 km / 45 mi

Nearest hub (Messina)

2,038

Population

May–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Montalbano Elicona stands at 907 meters in the Nebrodi mountains, north of Etna and inland from the Tyrrhenian coast above Patti. The Castello di Montalbano was raised in 1233 under Frederick II of Swabia, then rebuilt and adopted as a summer royal residence by Frederick III of Aragon between 1302 and 1308, who brought his physician Arnaldo da Villanova with him to treat his gout. The castle still combines a Norman rectangular nucleus with crenellated towers and an Aragonese addition with arrow slits and large windows. The town won the RAI Borgo dei Borghi competition in 2015. A short drive from the village, the Argimusco plateau holds a set of large eroded sandstone formations that some scholars read as a fourteenth-to-eighteenth-century hermetic site and others as wind-and-water sculpture. The surrounding hills are Città della Nocciola territory; hazelnut groves run from 700 to 1,000 meters.

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Gallery

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Known for

Castello di Montalbano
Frederick II castle of 1233 rebuilt as the summer residence of Frederick III of Aragon between 1302 and 1308, two towers and a Norman-Aragonese hybrid plan.
Megaliti dell'Argimusco
Eroded sandstone plateau twelve kilometers from the village, large free-standing formations read variously as natural sculpture and a medieval hermetic site.
Chiesa Madre di Santa Maria Assunta
Norman-era mother church near the castle, fourteenth-century reworking and a Renaissance baptismal font, restored after twentieth-century seismic damage.
Borgo medievale e Quartiere dei Saraceni
Concentric medieval ring of stone houses below the castle, including the Quartiere dei Saraceni, narrow lanes that wrap around the rock outcrop.
Bosco di Malabotta
Beech and oak reserve adjoining the Argimusco plateau, part of the Nebrodi park and a route for the summer hazelnut and chestnut harvests.

When to visit

Best months · May–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through October are the working months at 907 meters. The Nebrodi air stays cooler than the coast through July and August, often a ten-degree drop from Patti, and the Bosco di Malabotta gives shade for walking. Late July brings the Festa del Corteo Storico, with reenactments of Frederick III's court and a procession from the castle through the medieval quarter. Hazelnut harvest runs late August into September. The Argimusco plateau is best in autumn light. November through April is cold and quiet, with frost on the higher contrade, snow at the very end of winter, and most of the small B and Bs closed until spring.