Sottano Castle in Corleone
The Sottano di Corleone Castle stands on the high isolated cliff overlooking the town.
The cliff is a limestone block geologically collapsed from the front mountain and on which the “castrum inferius” was built, today a Franciscan hermitage. The Sottano castle was built in ancient times by the Arabs, together with the soprano one, between the 10th and 13th centuries. It was born to defend and control the new settlement most likely created with the arrival of the Lombards, in the Frederick era. It is likely that, in the second half of the thirteenth century, Corleone was already equipped with at least one of the two state-owned castra. However, it is not known which of the two castles was built first.
In the past this place was of great importance because the first houses of the town of Schera were built around it, which later gave life to the current town of Corleone.
The Sottano castle, until the mid-twentieth century, it was used as a prison, while starting from 1974 it was converted into the convent of the Friars Minor Renovated, today an important point of reference for the city, a silent oasis for retreat in prayer.
