The compact urban fabric of its ancient center is made up of honey-colored stone houses. Delia is among the many Arab-Norman hamlets that arose in the Middle Ages, whose castle is identified by scholars as the Sabuci of Idrisian memory.
At the end of the 13th century, in the lands of Delia, there existed a castle, a universitas (a community organized with administrative autonomy), and a church with a Greek Orthodox parish priest, whose first recorded mention dates back to 1308. The hamlet, together with its castle and a few other settlements, managed to survive - despite periods of great uncertainty due to wars, famines, and epidemics.
Throughout the 14th century, Delia and its territory were inhabited, and in 1333 the presence of a community was confirmed by a parchment documenting the replacement of the chaplain of the Church of Saint Nicholas of Delia. On December 21 of that same year, the church of Delia was acquired by the Diocese of Agrigento and changed from the Greek Orthodox rite to the Latin rite.
In two other documents from 1347 in the Archives of the Crown of Aragon, Delia is mentioned as a hamlet belonging to the Vallo of Agrigento. In 1375 Delia is recorded among the lands that paid a subsidy in favor of the Vatican, a fact confirmed by another document from 1377 in which it is referred to as a “land.” Finally, by royal privilege in 1392, King Martin granted the count of Caltanissetta, Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada, the castle and the land of Delia.
Classified as a universitas in the 13th century and as a terra from the 14th century onward, it stands out as one of the few medieval settlements that survived up to the dawn of the 17th century, presenting itself as a small inhabited center that adapted to the new transformation characterizing this era - the Sicilian Baroque. The Lucchesi first, and later the Palagonia family, in different ways and degrees, carried out the second and third refoundations of the town and its territory.
The geological structure on which Delia lies made this place and its surroundings a privileged and sought-after area for the peoples who chose it as their home.
The abundant presence of water and the vast expanses of fertile land have favored, since ancient times, the cultivation of vineyards - from which Delia takes its name - and of wheat, which contributed to the town’s refoundation. Today, these same conditions favor the cultivation of the Delia IGP peach and the Italia grape. That same fertility, combined with the creativity of medieval housewives, gave rise to the cuddrireddra, a rustic pastry scented with cinnamon, originally created as a gift for a beautiful lady of the castle and still today enjoyed for its intense and spicy aroma, dark amber color, and rich, aromatic flavor.