Roccalumera is a small seaside town in the Province of Messina, set on Sicily’s Ionian coast and shaped by its position between the sea and the historic hamlet of Allume. Its name means “Rock of Alum”, a direct reminder of the mineral deposits that gave the settlement its earliest identity and influenced its development through the medieval and feudal periods.
The modern village is linked to the 17th century and to Don Giovanni La Rocca, identified in local history as its founder after the alum mines passed into his hands in 1606. Later, the estate belonged to noble families including the Lancia, Ardoino and Moncada, while the area’s economy also reflected wider Ionian coastal traditions such as silk production and agriculture.
Today Roccalumera combines a coastal setting with a strong community character and a particularly vivid folklore identity: it is described as Sicily’s first “City of Folklore”. Together with its alum-related origins and the literary memory of Salvatore Quasimodo, this gives the town a distinctive profile that is more specific than that of a simple seaside village.
Patron Saint:
St. Anthony of Padua (Sant’Antonio Da Padova) – 13 June
Nearest Airport:
Catania (Fontanarossa) – (96 km, 01:09)
Neighboring Cities:
