Magic Castle (Castello Incantato) description and photos - Italy: Agrigento (Sicily) (Topic)

Magic Castle (Castello Incantato) description and photos - Italy: Agrigento (Sicily). Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Castello Incantato.

Photo and description

In the western part of Sicily, on the slopes of Monte Cronio, near the town of Sciacca, stands the so-called Magic Castle. This is an amazing structure created by man and nature among olive groves and thickets of almond trees. Here you can see several thousand striking sculptures - heads carved from stone by an artist called Filippo dei testi - Philip Golov by the locals.

The life of this man was unusual and very strange: Filippo Bentivegna was born in Sciacca in 1888 into a large but poor fishing family. From an early age he was forced to work and therefore did not go to school. In 1908, when he was 20 years old, Filippo volunteered for the Navy, where he served until 1912. Then he returned home to Shakku, but finding no work there, went in search of happiness to America. However, life there also battered the young man a lot, primarily because of his unconventional views for those times. In the United States, Filippo proved to be a fierce opponent of racism, for which he was virtually excommunicated from secular life. In the same place, he fell in love with a simple American girl, but her family found the guy an unsuitable party for their daughter, which negatively affected the mental state of the young man. Having made a small fortune in America, in 1919 Filippo returned to his homeland, to Sciacca, where he bought a tiny farm, where he spent the rest of his life drawing and carving various figures from wood and stone.

The artist's sculptures are strikingly different from each other - each serves as the embodiment of famous and fictional characters to whom Filippo gave names. In Filippo's dreams, these were subjects of his kingdom, and he himself was their king. He loved him when he was called "Your Highness." In the center of the farm is a small house where the artist lived: the walls are decorated with images of American skyscrapers, as well as a drawing of a large fish with a small fish in its stomach - most likely a metaphor for the ship on which Filippo sailed to New York. A special role in Filippo's life was played by a sculptural composition consisting of several heads crowned with something like a phallus - he himself called it "The Key to Magic".

Due to his deteriorating health, Filippo was forced to leave the farm and move to a house in the center of Sciacca. However, until the end of his life, he came to his "kingdom", which he always cared about. Filippo Bentivegna died in 1967 at the age of 78. Today, some of his works are exhibited at the Museum of Nonprofessional Art in Lausanne, Switzerland, and in 1974 the Sicilian government bought the territory of the Magic Castle and turned it into a tourist attraction.

We also recommend reading Palais Collato description and photos - Austria: Vienna

Topic: Magic Castle (Castello Incantato) description and photos - Italy: Agrigento (Sicily).