Old hydroelectric power plant of Francavilla
The Francavilla hydroelectric plant was one of the first hydroelectric plants in Italy and, most likely, the first in Sicily.
The long history of the electrification of Francavilla di Sicilia was born at the end of the nineteenth century, exactly on April 7, 1898, when the Municipality signed an agreement with the company "Patanè & C." for the five-year exploitation of the waters of the Alcantara river for the production of electricity.
On the basis of an agreement stipulated between the municipality of Francavilla di Sicilia and the company "Patanè & C.", the concessionaire built a small hydroelectric plant, using the wall structures and the water system of a pre-existing mill in the “Ciapa” district. The plant went into operation on 1 December 1900.
It was obviously an epochal event. As evidence of the importance of the event, there is a Swiss advertising brochure of the time, which proposed to tourists who were staying in Taormina to reach Francavilla by carriage to "experience the thrill" of staying at the "Hotel du Chateaux" as «avec la lumière electrique ".
The plants of the" Ciapa "district mill operated until 1921, when the" I Salto "hydroelectric plant in Fondaco Motta came into operation."
Unfortunately, only the ruins of the building remain of the site of the mill, the plants of the small power station, in fact, in the meantime passed into private hands, have been dismantled.
