What is Nicosia known for?

Nkoukkà, the Gallo-Italic dialect of Piedmontese and Ligurian origin brought by Norman-era Lombard settlers, still spoken in the old town. Made a city of the royal demesne by William II of Sicily, the only royal city of inland eastern Sicily for centuries. Cattedrale di San Nicolò, fourteenth-century Gothic foundation with wooden ceiling, raised to collegiate status by Leo X in 1521.

Nicosia is a comune in the province of Enna, Sicily region of Italy, about 102 kilometers from Catania.

Sicily · Enna

Nicosia

A Byzantine-Norman royal city at 720 meters on four hills, one of Sicily's principal Gallo-Italic centres where the Lombard dialect nkoukkà still survives.

720m

Elevation

102 km / 63 mi

Nearest hub (Catania)

12,686

Population

May–Oct

Best time to visit

Why come

Nicosia sits at 720 meters in the Erei mountains of inland Sicily, on four rocky hills crowned by a Norman castle. The modern town was founded by Byzantine colonists in the sixth century and expanded under Arab and then Norman rule. When the Normans took the city in 1064, Roger I repopulated it with settlers from Piedmont and Liguria, the Lombardi, whose Gallo-Italic dialect still lives in town as nkoukkà. King William II made Nicosia a royal city. The Cattedrale di San Nicolò, dedicated to Nicholas of Bari, was begun in the early 1300s under Frederick II of Aragon and completed by 1340, in Gothic style with a fourteenth-century wooden ceiling and a bell tower listed as a national monument since 1940. Pope Leo X raised the church to collegiate status in 1521. The Castello Normanno still stands in ruins above the town, anchoring the highest of the four hills.

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Gallery

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Known for

Cattedrale di San Nicolò
Gothic cathedral begun under Frederick II of Aragon and completed by 1340, with a fourteenth-century wooden ceiling and a national-monument bell tower.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore
Second great church of the town, on one of the four hills, with a marble polyptych by Antonello Gagini.
Castello Normanno
Ruined Norman fortress on the highest of the four hills, built during the eleventh-century conquest of the city.
Centro storico medievale
Old town spread across four hills, with palaces, churches and stone houses on steep alleys; the Lombard quarter still preserves the nkoukkà dialect.

When to visit

Best months · May–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through October is the open season. At 720 meters Nicosia stays cooler than the lowlands, and July and August are bearable even when the Catanese plain crosses thirty-five degrees. September and October are the dry, gold months, the Erei hills turning. November through April is quiet, cold rain common, occasional snow. The Festa di San Nicolò runs on 6 December, the Cattedrale lit and the centro storico animated for the patron. Most agriturismi close from January through Easter; the town comes back in May.