The cave of Calafarina.

Time ago

“Chiamau li cchiù famusi ‘ncantaturi,
fici ‘ncantari tuttu lu trisoru 
di lu so ‘mperu, pi lu gran timuri
di perdiri la verra: c'è tant'oru
na la caverna di Calafarina
d'arricchiri la terra e la marina….”

(from “Liggenda di Calafarina” by Salvatore Nanna, Siracusa, 1930)

cave of Calafarina

3. King Varvalonga had sent to Sicily a certain Cala Farina, his prime minister, as viceroy. Instead of governing, these were enriched at the expense of the people and accumulated their treasures in the cave. When the king sent for him, Cala Farina forced her daughter to protect the treasure and to kill herself in case she did not return. Cala Farina was in fact killed and when his daughter saw the color of the sails of the ships, a sign that the father was no longer alive, he killed himself and the treasure remained forever "enchanted". The spell will be dissolved only if someone is able to pronounce the exact words that Cala Farina's daughter said before taking his own life.

(legends taken from the book of Corrado Cernigliaro “Portopalo di Capo Passero”, ed. SETIM, Modica 1996).

A treasure in the cave of Calafarina?

Of course we talk about it in at least three popular legends:

1. Ben Avert, the Arab emir of Noto, had fallen in combat against the Normans. It was 1086. When the city fell, the widow and the son of the emir with a caravan of 30 people and a hundred mules laden with treasures set off towards Marzamemi to embark for Egypt. Before sailing the princess decided not to take the treasure into the sea, for fear of the pirates and had it hidden in the bowels of the earth, inside the cave of Calafarina. The slaves who buried him were killed and their souls remained in perpetual guard of the cave. In the nights of February their spirits invoke the name of the one who will remove the spell and free them.

2. At the time of the Arabs it is said that there was a castle in Moorish style right on the cave. Maniace, a Byzantine general, conquered it and left his young daughter Zoraide to live there, surrounded by immense treasures, including the relics of Saint Lucia. Maniace in the meantime had married Zoe, the widow of Emperor Michael, but he had hatched an affair with the new emperor Constantine to have him killed. Before dying Maniace wanted to see Zoraide again at Calafarina: he taught her how to put all her treasures under her spell. . Sidnar, son of the Arab general once owner of Calafarina, fell madly in love with Zoraide and moved with his men to the cave. In the battle both Sidnar and Zoraide perished and none succeeded in seizing the treasures, protected by the spell: before dying Zoraide had thrown into the sea an enchanted ring that was swallowed by a fish that never dies because it feeds on rare marine fruits. Who had found these fruits and managed to catch the fish would have become the master of the treasure of Calafarina.

internal corridor

big room

Well, the treasure of Calafarina really exists. Not that of Ben Avert or Zoraide or Varvalonga. No. And it's not under any kind of spell.

The spell instead seems to have grasped all the administrators of the town of Pachino, the insiders of the Superintendency of Cultural Heritage of Syracuse, the same inhabitants of Pachino. Yes, because the importance of Calafarina, of the nearby Corruggi cave and of the neighboring Cugni valley, was sanctioned, not with the colorful tones of the legend but with the scientific rigor of the research, by eminent scholars and researchers like Paolo Orsi and Luigi Bernabò Brea .

In fact, Corruggi, Calafarina and Cugni could in fact, with a limited expense, constitute a single archaeological park suitably organized with routes, information panels and meeting points. It would be an important step to fill that awful gap, that unbridgeable gap in the memory of a city that we have already denounced about the traditions of the harvest or the tonnara of Marzamemi.

Actually, in these last months some signs of "awakening" from the spell have been felt. Two basically:

• The drafting of two projects within the so-called P.I.T. (Integrated Territorial Projects), one concerning the restoration and refunctionalization of the so-called industrial archeology area near Marzamemi (former Rudinì warehouses), the other concerning the reorganization of the coastal strip from Marzamemi to the Calafarina area. The latter project should also include the establishment of the archaeological park.

• The birth of the Association of Historical and Cultural Studies, by a group of young and enthusiastic enthusiasts, with the consequent publication of a specialized magazine with the significant title of "Calafarina".

What's the spell melting?

Paolo Orsi

a bat