Mazara del Vallo

Mazara stands at the mouth of the river Mazaro on the southwestern coast of Sicily, a port and bishop's seat that gave its name to the whole Val di Mazara. Its Norman castle of 1073 and the church of San Nicolò Regale of 1124 recall the island's Arab-Norman age. The Aragonese period from 1282 to 1409 brought political, economic and demographic decline.

Mazara then passed from lord to lord: the Peralta from 1392 to 1397, the Cabrera counts from 1418 to 1445, Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, from 1450 to 1479, Queen Joanna from 1479 to 1518, and the Cardona count in 1521–1531. Twice the citizens bought back their freedom at their own expense and returned to the royal domain, but the seventeenth century was a time of poverty, ending in the riots of 1647. The Church eased the suffering by giving the whole revenue of the diocese. On 23 August 1614 the city council added a native son, Saint Vitus, to the Holy Saviour as patron, and the Discalced Carmelites arrived in 1667. The population stood at 7,788 in 1640 and 8,335 in 1798. In 1710 the seminary was built around the main square, and on 3 November 1797 the eyes of the image of the Madonna del Paradiso were said to move, a miracle that gave the cult new force.