Fortified Citadel of Kasmenai
Kasmenai, also known as Casmene, is an archaeological site of an ancient fortified Greek citadel, located near Monte Lauro, between the municipalities of Buscemi and Giarratana.
The military fortress of Kasmenai was founded by Syracuse in 644- 643 B.C. on the internal road "Selinuntina" which had the function of controlling and defending the Sicilian centers of south-eastern Sicily from any attacks coming from the hinterland. It stood in a dominant position on Monte Casale, an ancient volcanic apparatus that has been extinct for millennia near Monte Lauro.
The historical importance of the city is testified by Tucidide, according to whom around 553 BC. Kasmenai fought together in Syracuse against Kamarina and the Sicilians. Furthermore, from the city of Casmene, Gelone, tyrant of Gela, marched at the head of an army that won the Syracusans near Eloro and obtained absolute power of the city of Syracuse in 485 BC.
The citadel was surrounded by a mighty wall which ran for the entire plateau, 3 meters thick and fortified with external quadrangular lookout towers.
The urban layout of the citadel of Kasmenai consisted of 38 parallel streets that ran along the plateau from north to south, about 3 meters wide meters, and which left only a narrow walkway around the walls. There were no roads that went from east to west but only narrow passages between one block and the other that allowed the passage of one man at a time. System that allowed easy defense of the settlement in the event of an enemy attack. The houses inside the blocks, which were repeated the same throughout the plateau, consisted of three rooms overlooking a large courtyard.
The citadel was definitively abandoned towards the end of the fourth century BC. following the Hellenization of the Sicilian centers of south-eastern Sicily.
Today it is possible to admire the ruins of this ancient fortified citadel.
