Travelling along the state road that connects Palermo to Agrigento, about 30 kilometers from Sicily’s capital, you reach Marineo, a town perched on a ridge beneath a dramatic rocky outcrop that poets have dubbed the “Canine Tooth of Sicily” or the “Tomb of Polyphemus.”
Its history is closely tied to the Beccadelli Bologna family, who obtained the licentia populandi –permission to establish the settlement – from Emperor Charles V in 1552, after paying a considerable sum. Under Francesco Bologna, the first hundred houses were built around the castle; his son Gilberto later added another two hundred and carried out the reconstruction of the castle itself, where he chose to live.
