Regiovanni Castle in Gangi
The Regiovanni Castle in Gangi is an ancient rural building located a few kilometers south of the town centre, on the southern slopes of the Madonie mountain range.
The date of construction of the complex, called medieval and late medieval times, is not known. with the toponym of presumed Arab origin Rahal Iohannis, but it is believed that the settlement of the feudal Ventimiglia family occurred between the 13th and 15th centuries. The element that connects this building to a possible intervention by the Ventimiglias is the heraldic stone coat of arms placed on the entrance portal and bearing the date MCCCCXVIII (1418), the period in which the castle and the barony of Rahal Iohannis belonged to the cadet branch of the Counts of Geraci. The fortress was also, in medieval times, the object of several sieges as part of the rebellions against the Aragonese.
The building consists of a body with a rectangular plan, divided into different rooms leaning against a very high rock pinnacle in which some rooms dug into the same rock structure open up. There are also other openings which correspond to other environments carved into the rock and located at different heights. Due to the presence of numerous housing holes for beam heads, which were in turn dug into the stone, it is believed that there originally existed wooden superstructures and stairs that connected the various rock environments.
