Ruins of Old Salaparuta

What remains of the old inhabited center of Salaparuta, destroyed by the earthquake of 1968, is a mass of ruins among which the ruins of houses emerge, the base of the square tower of the Paruta castle, the lower part of the perimeter walls of the Mother Church, with the bases of the pillars of the naves and the structures of the side altars. A basilica with three naves, a transept and a high dome, it had a very slender facade in the middle part, typical of the best examples of Sicilian Baroque. On the external wall of the Sancetta house, a small shrine remembers the place where the miraculous tearing of a plaster bedside, depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus, took place in January 1957. Recent restorations have restored the 18th century Capuchin convent.

The ruins of Salaparuta, a small Sicilian town, are the historical testimony of the serious earthquake that struck the Belice valley in 1968. The ruins are what remained of the old inhabited center of the Trapani municipality and keep alive the memory of one of the most dramatic events that it hit Sicily and all of Italy.

The former Capuchin convent of the 18th century. They were built at the end of the 18th century, on land purchased by Prince Fabrizio Alliata and at his expense, who endowed the friars with income for worship, food and the maintenance of the structures. The church, inserted in the body of the convent, had a single nave which was accessed through the beautiful portal crowned by a robust mixtilinear frame. The convent consisted of sixteen rooms on the ground floor, some of which had a real vault and thirty-one on the first floor, connected by long corridors. From 1927 to 1963 it was used as a hospital and later as a school; it has recently been restored and consolidated also with the insertion of new metal structures.