Civic Clock Tower

2 Minutes of reading

It is difficult to determine when the civic tower on the hill once called Tabor was erected. Its function was linked both to territorial control and to the marking of time.

Torre civica dell’orologio

In 1780 a clock with four dials was installed, and in 1959 the tower was demolished and then rebuilt according to the design of engineer Alfonso Augello. The square-shaped shaft, crowned with Guelph battlements, rests on a broad base composed of four panels, the last of which houses the current clock, supplied by the Frassoni company of Rovato (BS).

At specific times of the day, the three bells play the whistle of the people of San Cataldo: “vacabunna va a travaglia” (“lazybones, go to work”), an invitation to idlers to get busy and live up to the reputation of the locals, known for being hardworking people. The idea is attributed to Maestro Gesualdo Valdino Lo Bianco (+1980), who proposed to create a dialogue between the civic tower clock and the one in the tower of the Church of the Rosary, in a sort of musical duet.

Its panoramic position allows the eye to sweep across the historic center neighborhoods, such as Madrice and Rosario, and the modern ones, including Cristo Re, extending the view to nearby Mount Babbaurra — the border line of the Caltanissetta community and the site of a battle fought in 1820 — and further to Enna and Calascibetta, reaching as far as the summit of Mount Etna. Access from Via Garibaldi consists of a wide and scenic staircase which, since 2018, has displayed a visual terracotta narrative of the history of Sicily and the town, with bas-reliefs by artists Giuseppina Riggi and Calogero Barba, teachers at the State Art High School “Juvara” of San Cataldo.

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