Porto Empedocle
The municipality of Porto Empedocle located in Sicily ( Italy) and belongs to the province of Agrigento.
Location and data
Porto Empedocle is located six kilometers southwest of Agrigento, and is the starting point for maritime traffic to the Pelagie Islands. The inhabitants are employed in agriculture, fish processing and industry. The Port (formerly the Molo di Girgenti ) is protected by a jetty from the ruins of ancient temples. Here dwell on 23.99 square kilometers 16,810 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2012).
The neighboring municipalities are Agrigento and Monte Real.
History
In the 15th century there was a Kornverladeplatz. Emperor Charles V ordered the construction of a tower to protect the grain harvest of the fields. The tower was later converted into a prison and is now a social and cultural center. After the completion of the harbor wall in 1763 the trade grew.
Today's municipality of Porto Empedocle was 1853. Those days was called the community Molo di Girgenti. Ten years later, the church received its present name. The name refers to the philosopher Empedocles, who was born in Agrigento.
Structures
- Parish church Maria SS del Buon Consiglio
- Birthplace of the writer and Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello in the district Contrada Caos in the direction of Agrigento, where the writer was buried under a pine tree. The pine tree no longer stands.
Personalities
- Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), writer and Nobel laureate
- Giovanni Sansone (1888-1979), mathematician
- Andrea Camilleri (1925 ), writer and director: His main fictional character, Inspector Salvo Montalbano, is internationally regarded as the epitome of Sicilian life and imaginative criminology. In April 2003, the municipality of Porto Empedocle changed its official name in Porto Empedocle vigata, this was the beginning of 2009, however, reversed. Vigata is the name of the fictional town in which the crime novels Camilleri play.
Special Events
In the international headlines Porto Empedocle came in July 2004 when the German rescue ship Cap Anamur broke in with 37 African refugees on board in the harbor. The ship was seized and taken part of the crew for four days in police custody.