Donnafugata Castle

Donnafugata Castle
Native name
Italian: il Castello di Donnafugata

An angled view of the balcony above the entrance to the castle.
Location District of Donnafugata, Ragusa, Sicily, Italy
Coordinates 36°52′55″N 14°33′49″E / 36.88194°N 14.56361°E / 36.88194; 14.56361Coordinates: 36°52′55″N 14°33′49″E / 36.88194°N 14.56361°E / 36.88194; 14.56361
Built 14th century

Donnafugata Castle /'doʊn.nah fuː'gɑːtɑː/ is a fourteenth-century castle 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from Ragusa in Sicily, Italy.

Name origin

Loggia of the castle.
Detail of the stone labyrinth.

There are many local stories that try to explain the origin of the name Donnafugata, which translates from Italian roughly as 'the fugitive woman' or 'the woman who fled'. Following what the name suggests, one legend claims that Queen Blanche of Navarre, widow of King Martin I of Aragon, was in hiding from Count Bernardo Cabrera who wanted to marry her and assume leadership over Sicily. She hid in Donnafugata Castle until it was taken under siege by Cabrera, during which Giovanni Moncada helped her flee and hide again in the Steri Palace in Palermo.[1] While this story may be true, it is not from whence the castle's name originates.

References

A primary setting in Lampedusa's The Leopard.

  1. ↑ Quatriglio, Giuseppe (1997). "Chapter IV: One Queen and Many Barons". A Thousand Years in Sicily (4th ed.). Legas / Gaetano Cipolla. p. 70. ISBN 0-921252-17-X.



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