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History of Longi
Geography
Longi is a little village on the Nebrodi mountains at 620 metres above the sea level. It’s located at the foot of San Nicolò mountain and overlooks the Fitalia river that separates it from the village of Galati Mamertino.
It's border are:
- S.Marco D'alunzio e Frazzanò on the north
- S.Salvatore di Fitalia on the north-east
- Galati Mamertino on the east
- Tortorici e Bronte on the south-west
- Cesarò on the south
- Alcara Li Fusi on the west
About its geology, the stratifications of the rocks that were found along the provincial road 157 in the stretch of Longi-Frazzanò are considered unique in their kind in all Europe. They are made up of clay, black or blue-grey limestone, marble limestone with grey or light brown firestones stratified in thin levels, marmite and red conglomerate. The presence in these rocks of 62 species of different molluscs suggested the possibility that many years ago Sicily was under the level of the sea.
In the campaigns of Longi a lot of different species of mushrooms can be found (meadow mushroom, wild mushrooms, etc.) that periodically attract many visitors. Hares, foxes, rabbits, squirrels and many kinds of birds including the golden eagle represent the fauna of this area. Longi is situated in a territory of 4212 hectares and the 83% of these hectares belong to Parco dei Nebrodi.
Origins and historical sources
The first people to live in this village were probably Greek people as suggested by the name of some places (Muely, Gazzana and Scafi), while some human bones recovered in this zone are supposed to be previous to the birth of Christ. According to other sources, after the Arab conquest of the city “Sicana di Crastos” at the beginning of the X century, the inhabitants moved to the valley and established the village called Castrum Longum that today is Longi. The Arabs destructed everything, from the historical archives to the structures and the churches of the..
