Churches, monuments
Ss. Michele
Ss. Annunziata
Ss. Salvatore
Monastery of Fragalà
War Memorial
Castle of Longi
Fauna
Monastery of San Filippo di Fragalà
At 560 m above sea level this monastery is built on the slides of the limestone formation that joins more southward Rocche del Crasto. From the bottom of the valley on the side of the mountain we can find a lot of olive trees, vineyards and fruit trees mixed with ancient woods of chestnuts and oak trees. Fauna is rich and diversified with different kinds of reptiles, mammals, amphibians, insects and many kinds of birds. The Monastery of San Filippo di Fragalà is situated on a hill and is about 3 kilometres far from the inhabited centre. When the Normans conquered Sicily, the Gran Conte Ruggero d’Altavilla decided that the monastery was built in a solitary place of the Valdemone area. The monastery was dedicated to S. Filippo di Fragalà d’Agira and it was erected on the ruins of an ancient Byzantine cenoby which, according to an oral legend, was built by S. Calogero di Calcedonia in 495 A.D. In some Norman-Swabian parchments, the Monastery is called of “Fragalà”, of “Melitiro” and of “Demenna”. The name of Fragalà probably comes from the Arab “farahallah” that means “joy of Allah”. The other name of Melitiro comes from the presence, near the cenoby of a village called “Melitiro” which was abandoned at the end of XVIII century because of a terrible landslide. The name of “Demenna”, at last, refers to the disappearance of the city of Demenna in the region of Valdemone, probably the territory of San Marco d’Alunzio. When Conte Ruggero arrived, the abbot Gregorio and the few inhabitants of the cenoby felt free from the Saracen oppression. In his testament, in fact, the abbot mentions the slaughters and the slavery that people suffered in Sicily and “the terrible pains he himself suffered in that monastery”. During the Norman period the monastery of Fragalà had its greatest prosperity.
