ISNELLO

...After Collesano you move into a mountain gorge, amid the Madonie walls, and you climb until, at a bend, in the distance the village of Isnello appears... as I looked beyond the village, to my eyes there returned the familiar images of a little village in Lucania. Isnello resembles it: although it is bigger, less poor, cleaner. It is a village of shepherds, farmers... craftsmen whose art is now doomed to decay, but one remembers the golden days when splendid laces were made, bells were smelted, hides were tanned and glass was blown. Still today the parts into which the village is divided are called Vetreria (glass workshop), Fonderia (foundry) and Conceria (tannery)... It is very old and hence full of profound nobility. (Carlo Levi, Le parole sono pietre)

Isnello is a place where wool is still worked with the loom, where hardworking and skilled hands stretch out true "love nets", where the now vanished art of processing glass and the tanning of hides is echoed in place names, where the dialect does not exhibit metaphony. Its healthy climate, cool waters and great sense of hospitality make it an ideal holiday place.

Where to sleep

All the hotels + restaurant

Park Hotel Piano Torre
C.da Piano Torre Tel. 0921 662671-2

La Montanina
C.da Piano Zucchi Tel. 0921 662030

Rifugio Orestano
C.da Piano Zucchi Tel. 0921 662159

Rifugio Lo Scoiattolo
C.da Piano Zucchi Tel. 0921 662831

Baita del Faggio

C.da Piano Zucchi Tel. 0921 662194

Ostello della Gioventù

C.da Piano Battaglia Tel. 0921 649995

Paese Albergo Vincenza Manzella

Via Roma, 27 Tel. 0921 662179

Azienda Agrituristica Baucina

C.da Mongerrati Tel. 0921 662759

Where to eat

Pizzeria Santa Lucia
Via Dante, 32, Tel. 0921 662374

Pizzeria Lo Smeraldo
C.da S.Antonio 8 0921 662718

Useful numbers

Town Hall
Tel. 0921 662032-662496

Bank • Banco di Sicilia
Tel. 0921 662101

Library
Tel. 0921 662881

Madonie Parks Office
Tel.  0921 68401I

Church
Tel.  0921 662008

Post office
Tel.  0921 662059

Emergency

Gendarmery
Tel.  0921 662044

Chemist
Tel.  0921 662144

Medical guard
Tel.  0921 662634

MONUMENTS

The Mother Church
This church was built in the fifteenth century; it has a nave and two side aisles. It is dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint, depicted in a magnificent wooden statue from the 15th century. In the church you can admire 17th-century stuccoes by Giuseppe Li Volsi (in the presbytery), frescoes by Antonino Ferraro, a wooden choir done in 1601 (baroque works in carved wood are characteristic of Isnello), a marble tabernacle attributed to Domenico Gagini, the 1615 organ, also in carved and gilded wood, and the fine Addolorata chapel decorated with frescoes in the 16th century and containing a canvas by the Gangi Cripple of "The Deposition".

The San Michele Church
It was presumably built between the 14th and 15th centuries. There is a fine wooden caisson ceiling, minutely painted, dating from the 11th century. The choir loft is one of the many examples of the baroque carving art which is so well represented at Isnello. One should also see the Crucifix by Brother Umile ofPetralia, the fresco of St. Leonard and the seventeenth-century canvas of the Forty Martyrs.

The Santa Maria Maggiore Church
It dates from the end of the 14th century and in it there are fine wooden works: a 16th-century crucifix (bifacial: on one side there is the Crucifixion, on the other the Resurrection) and a 1754 organ with a carved and sculpted wind-ches. There is also a marble statue of the Virgin dating from 1547, by a Sicilian artist. There are outstanding baroque stuccoes.

The Annunziata Church
It was founded in the Middle Ages but restructured in the course of the 18th century.The marble statue of the Virgin, to whom the church is dedicated, is one of the most interesting works in the church, and another is the Archangel Gabriel, by an artist of the Gagini school. Other fine works are the eighteenth

The Rosario Church
This church previously belonged to the Dominican friars, but in the 16th century it was annexed to the palace of the Princes of Isnello, who used it as their own chapel. It was one of the princes, Pietro Santacolomba Denti, who commissioned the magnificent altar cloth still on display in the church. One should also see the altarpiece, a very beautiful oil painting on wood by the Flemish artist Simone da Wobrek, showing the Madonna del Rosario and, at the edges, the fifteen mysteries. Lastly, from the seventeenth century there dates the "complete planet of Isnello", a rich sacred vestment embroidered in gold, silk and coral.

Among various works and monuments we must mention the bronze sculpture by the local artist Pietro Gambelluca, done in 1987, representing the Madonie Mother, and the San Leonardo Hermitage, now in ruins, dating from the 12th century. Particularly well preserved at Isnello is the medieval layout, characterised by little squares with different shapes, to walk up through: in the top part of the village, on a hillock, a few ruins bear witness to the presence of an old castle.

TRADITION AND FOLKLORE

The feast in honour of the patron saint St. Nicholas is an important moment of gathering, not only for the inhabitants of the village but also for all those who have emigrated from Isnello and come back home for the occasion. The procession with the saint's bier is on the last day of the feast

For Easter too there is a solemn procession, on Good Friday, with the last three tableaux of the traditional "Casazza", a sacred representation. In a procession people carry the Crucifix by Brother Umile ofPetralia, usually kept at the San Michele church, Christ in the Urn, escorted by young men dressed as Roman centurions, and the Grieving Mother.

Another religious feast, on 1st May, is the one in honour of the Santa Maria Maggiore Crucifix. Before the feast there is an octave of preparation, the so-called Crunedda, during which prayers in Sicilian dialect are sung and recited.

The climax is once again a procession, with people carrying the Crucifix on their shoulders from the Santa Maria Maggiore height all round the streets in the village, accompanied by the members of the confraternity, who out of devotion go barefoot and dressed in white.

On the eve of the feast, the tradition is to hold the fritter festival. In big recipients people cook a typical dish, the fritter, prepared with artichokes, beans, peas and wild fennel. Seasoned with tasty olive oil and accompanied by abundant libations of local wine, the fritter is offered to everyone present

Another festival organised during a religious feast is the bean festival: it is held on the evening of 29th June, in honour of St. Peter. Originally a thanksgiving feast for a good harvest, the festival is an opportunity to taste exquisite Isnello beans, offered to everyone on tables laid along the streets decorated with ivy and broom.

There are two events in December: the big bonfire (the "luminaria"), which is lit in the square for Christmas Eve and "Nunna Vecchia", New Year's Eve: young Isnello people run round the streets ringing noisy bells announcing the end of the year.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The village of lsnello lies among the folds in a valley, at the foot of the Montagna Grande, and its natural setting is the Madonie Park.The Isnel-\o oak wood, the Madonie beech wood and the verdant slopes of the Monte Carbonara follow one another just outside the village, with monumental trees - holm-oaks, cork oaks, downy oaks - characterising the Mon-taspro, Orippotto, Favara and Piano Zucchi hills (Piano Zucchi is a well-known holiday area, in summer and winter).

The Isnello territory is very well known to speleologists because there are some important caves in it. The best known is the so-called Abisso del Vento (Abyss of the Wind), a karst cavity going down to an incredible depth of 230 metres.The cave, which is made up of a vast network of wells and tunnels, is still largely unexplored. In it there are a lot of stalactites and stalagmites, in various shapes and sizes, which in some stretches form an impenetrable jungle of very white columns or give rise to shining waterfalls as well as delimiting depressions and pools of freezing and very clear water. Less well known are the Fico and Balatelle caves, where in the past archaeologists found Neolithic necropolises and stone weapons.

HANDICRAFT

Embroidery is the best expression of Isnello handicraft, and indeed some have called the village "the cradle of filet and Madonie embroidery".

The best known products are crochet work, 18th-century and 16th-century lace, filet, tatting, Sicilian embroidery, lace-pillow and cross-stitch, all types of work requiring great skill and patience, plus the use of particular needles and instruments like looms, bobbins, etc.

At one time embroidery with gold and silk was very common, as we see from the sumptuous sacred vestments in the various churches in the village.

Every year the local Council runs an exhibition of female work and this is an opportunity not to be missed, not only for those who love these products but also for those who want to know them and to approach techniques and traditions that elsewhere are often forgotten.

TYPICAL PRODUCTS

The Isnello gastronomic traditions are essentially based on the produce of the land and linked to the seasonal cycles of vegetation and the raising of animals. Among first courses we can mention 'tagliarini chi lin-ticchi' and 'maccaruna cu sucu' (fresh pasta respectively with lentils and with tomato sauce), 'pasta chi ciciri' (chickpea seeds), 'pasta ca frittedda' (a condiment based on fresh legumes) and pasta with ricotta.

Other very tasty typical dishes are 'carduna ca pastetta' (cardoons in batter), 'frittedda' and 'pani frittu' (fried bread).

Among desserts we can mention 'cudduruna', nougat, 'coma' (with figs, almonds, mandarin orange peel in them; they are made at the end of the year), 'aceddi cu l'ova' ("birds with eggs"), typical of Easter, 'sfinci', 'mus-tazzoli' based on honey, 'riso cu latti' (rice with milk) and 'cuddura a l'ovu'.

In summer Isnello women often make conserves: 'cutugnata' (quince jam), 'astrattu' (tomato concentrate), 'pumaroru siccu sutt'ogliu' (dried tomatoes in oil), 'mulinciani e pipi sutt'ogliu' (eggplants and peppers in oil), 'caponatina' and 'fund sutt'ogliu' (mushrooms in oil).