If you are ready to start an exciting trip to the distant middle ages, you can’t miss visiting the ruins of a Norman abbey, one of its kind, immersed in the woods of Gratteri.

It’s one of the most ancient historical monuments of the Hamlet of the Madonie, half an hour’s walk from the habitated center, crossing an untainted natural landscape. The appointment is at “Al passo della scala” – under the little church of the Crucifix – from where a path starts which, since 10 years, has been renamed “la Via dei Premostratensi”

And we arrive at a quiet place, steeped in stories and legends, where a supernatural peace reigns but that, at the time of foundation of the monastery, was a strategic point of intersection between two roman streets, very popular among travelers and pilgrims.

Today, the site is a favorite destination of both Italian and foreigner visitors who push themselves to the discovery of what might seem, at first sight, a ruin like many others, but that is actually a milestone of the path of the Normans in Sicily.

The church of the monastery of Saint George is, in fact, a cultural asset of peculiar interest in the Sicilian landscape from a historical, artistic, spiritual and anthropological point of view. Its origins date back to the XII century and can be located in a very complicated period of medieval history, and at the same time intriguing.

A priory founded by the Normans and entrusted to a French order, the premostratensi monks, only example in Sicily to then be inherited by the Hospitallers of Gerusalem, better known as the knights of Malta, that detained it for many years as commendam.

We will tell you a fascinating story of a Norman monument where facts that really happened and singular legends merge together in a strongly suggestive scenery which make the Gratteri one a historical document that perfectly fits inside the UNESCO sites of Sicily.

For further details about the excursion and the map of the itinerary, visit the following link: Visit Gratteri.