Centuripe
Centuripe (Latin: Centuripae; Sicilian: Centorbi) is a town and "comune" in the province of Enna (Sicily, southern Italy). The city is from Enna in the hill country between the Rivers Dittaìno and Salso. The economy is mostly based on agriculture. There are caves for sulphur and salt mineral, and water springs. History. Thucydides mentions "Kentoripa" (Κεντόριπα) as a city of the Sicels, Hellenized in the 5th century BC. It became an ally of the Athenians at the time of their expedition against Syracuse, and maintained its independence almost uninterruptedly (though it fell under the power of Agathocles) until the  First Punic War when it immediately submitted to the Romans. It was thus granted Latin Rights before the rest of Sicily and was a (free city exempted from tax). In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC Centuripe Ware was a distinctive class of Sicilian vase painting, with the unusual feature of fully coloured painting in tempera applied after firing was complete. Cicero described it, perhaps with some exaggeration, as being by far the largest and richest city of Sicily, and as having a population of 10,000, engaged in the cultivation of an extensive territory. It appears to have suffered much  in the war against Sextus Pompeius because of its loyalty to Octavian, but Octavian reconstructed and gave the inhabitants Roman citizenship. The Imperial Roman age has left the most impressive monumental remains. Grandiose monumental ruins, a rich complex of sculptures, numerous inscriptions: a whole series of elements seem to mark the accomplishments of a local family that, in the 2nd century, came to express a consul, a son of one of the components of the entourage of the emperor Hadrian. A large number of monumental remains were lost forever due to the neglect of the past and systematic theft and  plundering for collectors and collections of every where. It gradually declined in the late Empire. Emperor Frederick II entirely destroyed the city in 1233 in punishment for its rebellion, the inhabitants deported to Augusta. King Charles I of Anjou razed it completely to the ground, and the city was rebuilt only in 1548 by Francesco I Moncada, the future Prince of Paternò. The city was known as Centorbi until 1863. In 1943 during World War II and the liberation of Sicily the Battle of Centuripe saw the town captured spectacularly from the defending Germans by the 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade  although it suffered some damage. Main sights. Many remains of the ancient city, mostly of the Roman period, still exist and numerous antiquities, including some fine Hellenistic terra-cottas, were discovered in casual excavations. Other sights include the "Chiesa Madre" (17th century) and the ruins of the so-called Castle of Conradin, in fact a Roman mausoleum of the Imperial age. Archaeological sites. Centuripe and the surrounding territory are the subject of archaeological research and numerous sites have been found: In the city centre: Ruins, walls and remains of buildings near the churches Roman bridge. Roman Centuripe was on an  important route, the "via frumentaria" that connected Catania to the Tyrrhenian coast along the Simeto river; it joined Aetna (Paternò), Centuripe, Agyrium (Agira), Assorum (Assoro), Henna (Enna) and continued up to Termini Imerese. The strategic position of the city allowed the control both of this road and of that from the North continuing towards Leontini. The discovery of a paved stretch of road along the Simeto river and some ruined sections of the destroyed bridge, forgotten for centuries due to a deviation of the river, have advanced the hypothesis of finding the via frumentaria to some scholars. The bridge is  located near the Ponte Barca of Biancavilla and consists of four large segments aligned in the WNW/ESE direction, of a width of about 3 m and a length of 6–8 m each. The monument dates from the second century, probably linked to Quintus Pompeius Sosius Falco, curator of the viae Traianae between 108 and 112. The Askos of Centuripe. In the 1820s an askos (flattened vase) dating to the first half of the 5th century BC was found (now in the archaeological museum of Karlsruhe) with the longest Sicel inscription found to date. The Archaeological Regional Museum of Centuripe . In the town of Centuripe is the Regional Archaeological Museum of Centuripe, the museum contains the largest collection of Roman finds in central Sicily and important and rare statues of the emperors Hadrian and Octavianus Augustus.