Legend of the three brothers
Giacomocostaphoto - CC3.0
The legend of the three brothers tells the origins of the Arab-Norman castle of the city of Salemi.
It is said that two brothers and a sister competed for dominion over the territory of Salemi. They then decided to determine which of them had ruled through a challenge: each of them had to build a castle on their own and who had completed its construction first would have ruled the entire territory. Whoever finished first should have warned the other two brothers via a large bonfire. But it happened that the cunning sister lit the fire long before her castle was actually finished. The two brothers, convinced that they had been beaten, honored the agreement established, left their sister in command and abandoned the still unfinished castles of Settesoldi and Mokarta, of which only a few ruins are visible today. The sister, on the other hand, calmly completed her work and built a sturdy fortress which, despite the terrible earthquakes that occurred in the area, still dominates the city of Salemi.
