Tortorici

Tortorici is an ancient small town in the Messina area, set in the Valle dell’Ingegno within the green, mountainous landscape of the Nebrodi. Lying in a basin on a hill about 500 metres above sea level, it is closely tied to water, woods and rivers, with three rivers meeting in its territory and the surrounding countryside giving the town a strong natural frame.

Its identity is mainly medieval. The old centre keeps the compact pattern of narrow paved lanes, stairways, arches, underpasses, fountains and stone portals, while its deeper origins remain uncertain: traditions differ between a legendary foundation linked to a follower of Aeneas and an account of Greek origins followed by Roman and Byzantine presence. In the age of Federico II di Svevia it was a feudal town, later ruled until the 15th century by the Pomichino family, connected with the development of the present old centre.

Tortorici reached its greatest splendour in the 14th century and still carries a distinctive memory as the Valle dell’Ingegno, associated with local intellectuals, artists and a long bell-founding tradition known across Sicily and Calabria.