The town was built in 1693, after the destruction by an earthquake of the old town of Occhialà, located to the north of the modern Grammichele. Occhialà, which, on account of the similarity of name, is generally identified with Echetla, a frontier city between Syracusan and Carthaginian territory in the time of Hiero II, and which appears to have been originally a Sicel city in which Greek civilization prevailed from the 5th century onwards. Being laid out on a hexagonal street plan, it is one of several Val di Noto towns with distinctive layouts.