Montallegro

Montallegro is a small hill town in the Province of Agrigento, set about 100 metres above sea level at the foot of Monte Suso and within reach of Sicily’s southern coast. Its setting is agricultural and open, with olive-growing countryside around the village and coastal nature areas not far beyond. The atmosphere is strongly local: rural, devotional and closely tied to community traditions.

The town’s identity is inseparable from Monte Suso, where the earlier settlement of Angiò once stood. Historical names such as *Mons Laetus* and *Mons Allegrus* lead toward the present name, while the village’s story reflects movement between higher ground and the lower plain, shaped by security concerns and, around 1600, by the severe lack of water at the old site. In 1663 the feudo passed to the Princes of Petrulla, who obtained the *licentia populandi* from King Philip III.

Today, Montallegro remains distinctive for this layered relationship between mountain, countryside and village: a rural Sicilian community whose present form still carries the memory of its older settlement above.