Salvo Nibali Civic Museum in Maletto

Maletto, built at about a thousand meters above sea level, is the highest municipality of all the Etna villages. Even if the town is very small, a short visit will allow us to get to know the interesting collection kept inside the Salvo Nibali Civic Museum.

History of the Salvo Nibali Civic Museum in Maletto

It was 1952 when the Salvo Nibali Civic Museum was built in Maletto, which replaced the former slaughterhouse right at the entrance to the town.

There was the need to collect in a single site, the archaeological finds found in the area and dating back to the Neolithic period and which constitute an important testimony of the demo-ethno-anthropological cultural heritage.

The finds that give prestige to this small but well-organized museum all come fromArchaeological area of ​​MalettoCalled Contrada Ivy or Of the skiing of Santa Venera.

Architecture and works of art in the Civic Museum of Maletto

The visitor who enters the Civic Museum of Maletto will be able to admire in the Archaeological Section the finds that emerged during an excavation campaign carried out starting from 1988 by the then Superintendency of Fine Arts of Catania and from reports from archaeological studies carried out in the field by experts from Durham University.

However, the Civic Museum of Maletto proposes the exhibition of evidence from the Neolithic era such as ceramic fragments dating back to the XNUMXth millennium BC but also the evolution of the culture of metals always dating back to prehistory, demonstrating that at that time, the territory saw the presence of man, later disappeared. A presence that resumed during the Greek period as can be seen from the finds collected in this museum and also continued in Roman times.

As mentioned, the Civic Museum in Maletto is well organized and this is tangibly demonstrated by the educational itineraries that follow an exhaustive exhibition organized in a systematic way.

At the museum there are examples of houses dating back to the eighth century after Christ, where there are small wells that were used as a pantry.

Reconstructed and curated by the Taormina-Etna Cultural District, the museum area was dedicated to Salvo Nibali, a journalist born in Maletto and is part of the district museum circuit together with the Lava Stone Museum located in Bronte at the Nelson Castle , that of the Sicilian Puppets of Randazzo and the Incorporate of Linguaglossa.

What you can do around the Salvo Nibali Civic Museum in Maletto

There are few attractions other than the Civic Museum in Maletto, but those that are there deserve to be visited. One of these is theArchaeological area of ​​the Sciare di Santa Venera or Contrada Ivy from where, fans of trekking can start a journey of about 4 kilometers inside the Etna park.

In the village there is the Schiccio Fountain dating back to the 1950th century and built by Prince Spadafora to solve an endemic water problem. A more than brilliant idea since this fountain – a reference point for all the inhabitants of Maletto – worked until XNUMX as the only water resource in all of Maletto. As is the case in small towns, even on this fountain there are stories whose famous tells a guy who, to avoid standing in a long line to get water, used to pretend to be a ghost with the intention of making the everyone and thus get to fill his containers with water but, contrary to what usually happened, once he discovered his trick he was beaten up by the whole country.

Naturally, the eighteenth-century fountain that dominated the center of Maletto with its mighty mass, displaying a large jet of water, underwent transformations that changed its appearance and location.

The small one deserves a panoramic visit Rural church of the Madonna del Carmelo just outside the centre. Built at the end of the seventeenth century, following a cholera pandemic that occurred at the end of the nineteenth century, it was used as a hospital for the sick and the surrounding land used as a cemetery.

Even the remains of the thirteenth century Castle Manfredi Maletta it is another possible destination, if only to enjoy a truly exceptional overview of the territories surrounding Maletto. Intended as a lookout point and as a defensive fortress, it had an obvious importance in its day.

How to get to the Salvo Nibali Civic Museum in Maletto

By car: from Messina, take the A18 at the Fiumefreddo tollbooth and after 58 kilometers you have to exit to continue on the SS 120, the Northern Etnea Provincial Road or Quota Mille until you cross the SS284 following the signs for Maletto. From Palermo, take the E90 and continue on the A20 taking the S. Agata Militello exit and continue on the SS284 following the signs for Maletto.