Mirto

Mirto is a small hill village in the Province of Messina, set in the Nebrodi area in the heart of Nebrodi Park. With around one thousand inhabitants, it has the scale of a quiet borgo, surrounded by countryside and shaped by the landscape of the northern Sicilian mountains, with the Tyrrhenian side never far from its horizon.

Its name is of Greek origin and is linked to the myrtle plants once present in the area. The village developed from the medieval period, after earlier population movements connected with the destruction of Ruma, an ancient settlement in the present-day Tempoli area. Mirto was later destroyed during the War of the Vespers and rebuilt, before entering a feudal phase associated with families such as the Larcan, who acquired it in 1408, and the Filangeri.

This layered past gives Mirto a character that is both rural and aristocratic, with a strong memory of religious tradition, silk production, mulberry cultivation and, between the 18th and 19th centuries, a distinctive link to Sicilian fashion. Its identity rests in this unusual combination: a small Nebrodi village whose history connects medieval reconstruction, feudal Sicily and local craftsmanship.