What is Sambuca di Sicilia known for?

Won the RAI competition in 2016, which drew international press and a wave of one-euro house buyers to the Arab quarter. The seven Saracen alleys laid out by Emir Al-Zabut in 827, the oldest intact Arab street grid surviving in Sicily. Nero d'Avola and Cataratto grown on the slopes above Lake Arancio, vinified by Cantine Settesoli and the smaller Planeta and Di Giovanna estates.

Where is Sambuca di Sicilia?

Sambuca di Sicilia is a comune in the province of Agrigento, Sicily region of Italy, about 78 kilometers from Palermo.

Sicily · Agrigento

Sambuca di Sicilia

An Arab-founded hill town in the Belice valley, named Borgo dei Borghi in 2016, still called Zabut in living memory before 1923.

78 km / 48 mi

Nearest hub (Palermo)

5,341

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Sambuca di Sicilia sitson a hill above the Belice valley, sixty-eight kilometers southwest of Palermo, overlooking the artificial Lake Arancio and the Sicani hills behind it. The Emir Al-Zabut founded the town in 827, soon after the Arab landing in Sicily, and named the castle after himself. The Arab quarter that survives runs through li setti vaneddi, the seven Saracen alleys, a tight grid of stone houses and inner courtyards still recognizable in the centro storico. Frederick II conquered Zabut in the thirteenth century. The town carried its Arab name as Sambuca Zabut until 1923, when the suffix was officially dropped. In 2016 it won RAI's Borgo dei Borghi competition, which brought a wave of one-euro house buyers from abroad. The territory produces Nero d'Avola and Cataratto under the Menfi DOC, and the Mazzallakkar fortress stands half-submerged at the edge of the lake.

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Gallery

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Known for

Li Setti Vaneddi
Seven Saracen alleys at the core of the Arab quarter, narrow stone lanes opening into inner courtyards, the original ninth-century street grid.
Castello di Mazzallakkar
Square Arab fortress with four corner towers, half-submerged at the southern edge of Lake Arancio after the reservoir was filled in 1952.
Lago Arancio
Reservoir below the town fed by the Carboj river, formed in 1952 and used today for sport fishing and irrigation of the surrounding vineyards.
Chiesa della Concezione
Eighteenth-century mother church on the central piazza, restored after the 1968 Belice earthquake that damaged much of the upper town.
Monte Adranone
Greek and Sicanian archaeological site eight kilometers from town at 1,000 meters, with the remains of a sixth-century BC necropolis and city walls.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through November are the right windows for Sambuca. The inland Sicani hills hold dry heat in summer, regularly past thirty-five degrees in July and August, and the centro storico shuts itself down between two and five in the afternoon. October is harvest in the surrounding vineyards and the air clears enough to see Monte Adranone from the upper piazza. May brings the Festa della Madonna dell'Udienza and the Saracen alleys fill for the procession. Winter is mild but quiet; the Belice valley fog can sit over Lake Arancio for days, and many of the one-euro-house renovators leave until spring.