| Castello di Bifar | |
|---|---|
| Campobello di Licata, Sicily, Italy | |
| Coordinates | 37°12′1″N13°57′30″E / 37.20028°N 13.95833°E |
| Type | Castle |
| Site history | |
| Built | 11th century |
| Fate | Destroyed, 1693 |
The Castello di Bifar was a castle in Campobello di Licata, Sicily. It was built in around the 11th century, and was captured by the Normans in around 1086. The castle is only known from documents such as the writings of Goffredo Malaterra.
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages by predominantly the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.
Campobello di Licata is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Agrigento in the Italian region Sicily, located about 110 kilometres (68 mi) southeast of Palermo and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Agrigento.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 20 regions of Italy. It is one of the five Italian autonomous regions, in Southern Italy along with surrounding minor islands, officially referred to as Regione Siciliana.
The castle was destroyed in the 1693 Sicily earthquake, and no remains have survived today. [1]
The 1693 Sicily earthquake struck parts of southern Italy near Sicily, Calabria, and Malta on January 11 at around 21:00 local time. This earthquake was preceded by a damaging foreshock on January 9. The main quake had an estimated magnitude of 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, the most powerful in Italian recorded history, and a maximum intensity of XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale, destroying at least 70 towns and cities, seriously affecting an area of 5,600 square kilometres (2,200 sq mi) and causing the death of about 60,000 people. The earthquake was followed by tsunamis that devastated the coastal villages on the Ionian Sea and in the Straits of Messina. Almost two-thirds of the entire population of Catania were killed. The epicentre of the disaster was probably close to the coast, possibly offshore, although the exact position remains unknown. The extent and degree of destruction caused by the earthquake resulted in extensive rebuilding of the towns and cities of southeastern Sicily, particularly the Val di Noto, in a homogeneous late Baroque style, described as "the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in Europe".
