Centuripe

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Comune di Centuripe
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Sicily
Province	Enna (EN)
Mayor	Giuseppe Arena (since May 26, 2002)
Elevation	730 m
Area	173.18 km²
Population
- Total (as of December 31, 2004)	5,775
- Density	34/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	37°37′N 14°44′E
Gentilic	Centuripini
Dialing code	0935
Postal code	94010
Patron	St. Prosper
- Day	September 19
Website: www.comune.centuripe.en.it

Centuripe (Sicilian: Centorbi) is a town in the province of Enna (Sicily, southern Italy). The city is located 61 km from Enna, in the hill country between the Rivers Dittaìno and Salso.

The economy is mostly based on agriculture. There are caves for sulphur and salt mineral, and water springs.

[edit] History

Thucydides mentions Kentoripa as a city of the Sicels, hellenized in the 5th century BC. It became an ally of the Athenians at the time of their expedition against Syracuse, and maintained its independence almost uninterruptedly (though it fell under the power of Agathocles) until the First Punic War. Cicero describes it, perhaps with some exaggeration, as being far the largest and richest city of Sicily, and as having a population of 10,000, engaged in the cultivation of an extensive territory. It was granted Latin rights before the rest of Sicily. It appears to have suffered much in the war against Sextus Pompeius, and not to have regained its former prosperity under the empire.

Emperor Frederick II entirely destroyed the city in 1233 in punishment for its rebellion, the inhabitants deported to Augusta. King Charles I of Anjou razed it completely to the ground, and the city was rebuilt only in 1548 by Francesco Moncada.

The city was known as Centorbi until 1863.

[edit] Main sights

Considerable remains of the ancient city walls and of buildings, mostly of the Roman period, still exist, and numerous antiquities, including some fine Hellenistic terra-cottas, have been discovered in casual excavations.

Other sights include the Chiesa Madre (17th century) and the ruins of the so-called Castle of Conradin, in fact a Roman construction of the imperial age.