page_title: Alcamo
section_title: Modern age
hierarchical_section_title: Alcamo / History / Modern age
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Porta Palermo (stampa antica del 1900)
context_page_description: Alcamo is the fourth-largest town in the province of Trapani in Sicily, with a population of 45,374 inhabitants. It is on the borderline with the Metropolitan City of Palermo at a distance of about 50 kilometres from Palermo and Trapani.
  Nowadays the town territory includes an area of 130.79 square kilometres and is the second municipality as for population density in the province of Trapani, after Erice.
  Alcamo is bounded by the Tyrrhenian Sea on the north, Balestrate and Partinico on the east, Camporeale on the south and Calatafimi-Segesta and Castellammare del Golfo on the west. Its most important hamlet is Alcamo Marina at about 6 kilometres from the town centre.
  Together with other municipalities it takes part in the Associazione Città del Vino, the movement Patto dei Sindaci, Progetto Città dei Bambini, Rete dei Comuni Solidali and Patto Territoriale Golfo di Castellammare.
context_section_description: At about the year 1500, Alcamo was under the jurisdiction of the captain of justice Ferdinando Vega, who fought against the raiding Turkish pirates. The town was surrounded by defensive embattled walls provided with four gates:
  Porta Palermo (afterwards called Porta Saccari), at the end of the present via Rossotti;
  Porta Corleone, at the end of the present via Commendatore Navarra;
  Porta di Gesù, opposite the church of Saint Mary of Jesus, next to the Franciscan friary;
  Porta Trapani (later called Porta del Collegio), at the beginning of via Commendatore Navarra.
  During this period, the town was divided into four-quarters, each one associated with the name of the main church in that area:
  San Giacomo de la Spada
  San Calogero
  San Francesco d'Assisi (or "Terra nuova")
  Maggiore Chiesa.
  The division between these quarters was coincident with the main streets of the town, that are the present Corso 6 Aprile and Via Rossotti and its continuation via dei Baroni Emanuele di San Giuseppe (called incorrectly "Via Barone di San Giuseppe").
  In 1535, in coincidence with the visit of the emperor Charles V, coming back from Tunisia, the old Porta Trapani was closed and four gates were opened:
  new Porta Trapani, near the beginning of the present Corso 6 Aprile (that was called "Corso Imperiale");
  new Porta Palermo (initially called Porta San Francesco), at the end of today's Corso 6 Aprile;
  Porta Stella, at the corner between Via Stella and Piazza Ciullo; this name derives from the name of the Church of Our Lady of the Star (in Italian "Madonna della Stella"), near there;
  Porta Nuova, between the present Discesa al Santuario and Piazza della Libertà.
  During the 16th century there was a development in education in Alcamo because of the construction of new schools and the activity of expert teachers, in particular the poet and scholar Sebastiano Bagolino (1562–1604). In 1547 the Madonna appeared to some women of the people and an image of Madonna Fons Misericordiae was discovered and worshipped as "Our Lady of Miracles".
  In the late 16th century, the population was decimated by an infectious disease. and the victims were buried in the cemetery of Saint Ippolito.
  In 1667 Mariano Ballo ordered the construction of a theatre, called "teatro Ferrigno", later demolished and rebuilt during the 1960s; after the reconstruction it was first called "cine-teatro Euro" and later "Teatro Cielo d'Alcamo".
  During the 18th century, pestilence and popular rebellions occurred in Alcamo again. On the other hand, this age was important for art because of the construction of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption (1699), designed by the architects Angelo Italia and Giuseppe Diamante. Its interior was also decorated with 38 frescoes made by the Flemish painter Guglielmo Borremans between 1736 and 1737. In the same period the Church of Saint Olivia was renovated, Saint Paul and Bartholomew's Church was rebuilt (1689), and the Church of the Holy Crucifix (or saint Francis of Paola) was completed (1699) together with the monumental church of College some decades later(1767).
  The population of the town, gradually recovered from the pestilence and increased to 13,000 in 1798.
caption: Porta Palermo in a print of 1900
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