Paceco

Paceco is a small town near Trapani in western Sicily, set on a rocky hill above the broad white salt landscape that stretches south of the city. From its position, the town looks toward Trapani and the Egadi Islands, while its surrounding countryside keeps a rural character of cultivated land and salt-working traditions.

Although the territory was inhabited from very early times, with evidence reaching back to the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods, the present town belongs above all to Sicily’s feudal history. Paceco was founded in 1607 by Placido Fardella, linked to the marquesses of San Lorenzo, after the older settlement had been abandoned. Its name recalls Maria Pacheco, his wife, giving the town a personal origin that still defines its identity.

The historic centre reflects this planned beginning through its notably regular orthogonal layout, a feature that sets Paceco apart from many older Sicilian towns. Its distinctive character lies in the meeting of a deliberately designed 17th-century settlement, an ancient inhabited landscape and the salt-producing territory that continues to shape its memory.