Solarino

Solarino is a hill town in the province of Siracusa, set in the Val d’Anapo on the eastern side of the Iblei Mountains. Its countryside slopes towards the Plain of Syracuse, with olive and orange trees, caves and rural land along the Anapo River giving the town a distinctly inland Sicilian setting.

The modern centre was founded around 1759–1760, when Giuseppe Antonio Requisenz obtained permission to populate the “Terra di San Paolo nel feudo di Solarino”. That name reflects an identity that remained visible for centuries: until the 1920s, Solarino was known as San Paolo Solarino, and local memory is still closely tied to the tradition of Saint Paul’s passage through the area in 61 AD.

Behind this 18th-century foundation lies an older landscape, with traces of prehistoric, Siculan, Roman and early Christian presence in the surrounding territory, as well as a feudal history recorded by the late 13th century. Solarino’s character comes from this layered background: a compact Sicilian town where rural life, devotion and ancient settlement memories meet in the hills above Syracuse.