Ucria

Ucria is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 130 kilometres (81 mi) east of Palermo and about 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Messina. It is located in the Park of the Nebrodis.

Physical geography

Ucria is a small mountain town, between 710 and 790 metres (2,330 and 2,590 ft) above sea level, in the Nebrodi Mountains. It is the meeting point of three major thoroughfares: the State Road #116 (Capo d'Orlando - Randazzo), the Provincial Road #136 (San Piero Patti - Ucria), and the Provincial Road #139. The last of these passes through Sinagra on the way to the sea at Brolo. The Via Padre Bernardino (Strada Statale #116) bisects the town and provides a nice view of the surrounding mountains and the valley.

History

The finds of prehistoric tools, close to the Rocca di San Marco, and a storage room of Roman coins in the locality Arelluso, are evidence of the habitation in antiquity. The origin of the town dates back to the times of the Greeks, while the name is derived from the Arabic "KERYA" which means "village." The two Saracen towers, one in the outskirts that was to serve as a lookout and one in the north of the town, are an indication that the village already existed at the time of the Arabs, and that it represented a strategic location on the way to the sea. From the towers, a series of passages and tunnels that branch off across the area. Since the year 1000, Ucria was dominated by a castle that passed from one power to another, including Norman, Swabian, Angevin and Aragonese. In the Norman period, Ucria was a fiefdom of Abbo Barresi.