The town's urban development follows two lines: the Arab one "inside the walls," which is projected through the sixteenth century with the thickening of residences around the fortress of Zabut, and the seventeenth-eighteenth-century one "outside the walls," with the town hall acting as a hinge.

The tour begins at the 19th-century L'Idea theater at the lower end of Corso Umberto I. Along the corso, stately buildings, marked by the presence of sandstone and the passing arches connecting the main streets to courtyards (about 250), alternate with places of worship, of which there are thirteen. In the middle of the course, the Di Leo and Oddo palaces and the church of San Giuseppe with its chiaramont-inspired white stone portal stand out.

On Marconi Street, the Church of the Conception has a magnificent pointed arch portal of chiaramontana matrix also from the church of San Nicolò in the ancient village of Adragna. Inside it has 18th-century sculptures. Also on Via Marconi are the aristocratic palaces Rollo, which faces the church with a courtyard and loggia staircase; Giacone, with a double private courtyard and Catalan staircase inside; and Fiore with its imposing bulk.

Back on Corso Umberto, Palazzo Campisi, a bank building, dates from the second half of the 19th century and shows the warm color of sandstone. The church of St. Catherine of Alexandria with its opulent decorations is an expression of Baroque architecture, enhanced by stuccoes, allegorical statues, coats of arms, blazons, and twisted columns. The enameled tile floor from the majolica factories of nearby Burgio is notable. On the opposite side of Piazza della Vittoria, the casino of the Marquises Beccadelli is appreciated for its balcony with sinuous Baroque forms and courtyard that recalls Catalan types imported to Sicily during Spanish rule.

The building is part of a larger complex that reaches as far as Via Caruso and includes the 16th-century church of Saints Rocco and Sebastian (now an exhibition space), the tower and the hospital. The scenic effect of the seventeenth-century Church of the Carmine is accentuated by the front, which is built on two superimposed orders. Here are the burials of aristocratic families, wooden and marble statues: these include the 17th-century St. Anne and the Madonna dell'Udienza on the high altar, from the mid-16th century, attributed to Gagini.

Returning to the corso, there are the 19th-century Ciaccio palace in exposed sandstone with a central colonnaded courtyard; the fine façade of the Church of the Purgatory (1631) used as a Museum of Sacred Art; and the Oddo (or dell'Arpa) palace, ascribable to the classicist language of the mid-18th century. This palace, seat of the city hall, leads into what was the "walled city." In fact, from here the urban geography of the town changes: the streets thicken, become tangled, and then open up into unexpected irregular widenings: we are in the Arab quarter, in the ancient heart of Sambuca, born from seven Saracen alleys.

In largo San Michele, palazzo Amodei with its unique courtyard is just before the three-aisled church of San Michele, inside which is the equestrian statue of St. George, a 1596 work by the Lo Cascio brothers. In that same year, the new direction of urban development towards the valley entailed a 180-degree rotation of the church's original orientation, until then facing the castle: hence, its two elevations. Dating from the late sixteenth century is the castle keep later transformed into the Panitteri palace by adapting the quadrangular structure to the new housing requirements. The main floor of the palace is home to the archaeological museum.

When you reach Piazza Navarro, you turn left back into the dense web of narrow streets of the Arab quarter: a haphazard tangle of alleys, a casbah with one- or two-level houses and sometimes with external ramped staircases, and with the escapes of Sicilian tile roofs declining on each other. Then there are the purres, the stone quarries of the sunken city made up of walkways and caverns emptied over the centuries. In the neighborhood, the signs of the Christian faith are the Church of the Rosary, which boasts a cobblestone churchyard dating from 1752 and a cypress-wood doorway with carved tiles, and, at the top of the hill, the Matrix Church, closed to worship since 1968.

Nearby

Walking and trekking on Mount Genuardo, mountain biking and, for the less sporty, theater, because Sambuca boasts one of the very few still-functioning Italian-style theaters in western Sicily.

Forty kilometers away, Alberto Burri's Cretto in Gibellina is one of the most important works of land art of the 20th century. To stay in Sambuca, Mount Genuardo and the Oriented Nature Reserve (1180 m. a.s.l.) comprising the area of Santa Maria del Bosco and the Bosco del Pomo with the settlement of Adranon, are destinations for walking and trekking. To the east of Mount Genuardo runs the valley marked by the Arab castles, which controlled the trade route from the port of Sciacca to Palermo. The fortress of Zabut was the guardian of the valley.

Lake Arancio is a reservoir, behind which some trekking routes start, such as the one along the Tardara Gorge leading to Sciacca. The mid-15th-century Pandolfina tower, which stands in defense of the farm, the 11th-century Cellaro tower on the shores of Lake Arancio and, not far away, the remains of the Arab fort of Mazzallakkar are worth a visit. From the lake, via state road 188, one reaches the Misilbes quarries, "fantastic and unreal," Leonardo Sciascia wrote in 1960, "dug into the hillside like Egyptian temples. North of the town is the church of Santa Maria di Adragna, known as "Bammina," among the oldest places of worship in the area. It seems to have originated from the primitive place of worship attached to the farmhouse of Adragna. Finally, the archaeological site of Monte Adranone can be visited.

The village dish

Inventing the minni di virgini, the "virgin breasts," was - tradition says - a nun from the College of Mary, commissioned in 1725 by the Marquise of Sambuca to prepare a cake for her son's wedding. Sister Virginia took her cue from the hills surrounding Sambuca and obtained a pastry with a filling of milk cream, chocolate and zuccata, covered with sugar icing, praised by the Prince of Salina in Tomasi di Lampedusa's "Il Gattopardo": "... sviolinature in major of the candied black cherries, sour timbres of the yellow pineapples and triumphs of the throat, with the opaque green of their ground pistachios, impudent 'Paste delle Vergini'.

The village product

Wine, extra virgin olive oil, cheeses derived from sheep farms: in Sambuca the products of the land are all zero kilometer. In addition to sheep's ricotta cheese, also used in pastries, it is worth mentioning vastedda del Belice DOP, a pasta filata cheese made entirely from sheep's milk, with its unique focaccia shape.