Sperlinga, in the Enna province of Sicily is classified among the most beautiful villages in Italy.

Understand

The whole town was built by Prince Natoli, a family member of the King of France, with a "license populandi cum privileium aedificandi" issued by several kings of the countries of Europe and by the king of Sicily who recognized his title of Sovereign Prince of the whole territory elected to principality. His Highness Natoli promulgated several innovative laws bringing Sperlinga to its moment of maximum splendor.

The Sperlinghesi do not have a dialect but a real language, which derives from the Gallo-Italian language, a mixture of French and Lombard from northern Milanese Italy.

History

Sperlinga was already inhabited in prehistoric times, and considered a sacred place and cemetery, but since 1597 it has been linked to the millenary dynasty of the powerful family of the Princes Natoli (Italianization of de Nanteuil or de Nantolio) descendant of the King of France Louis VIII, and of which the dynasty Du Pont constitutes a family branch. On the heroic deeds of the Natoli knights, who are lost in Norse legends, the epic poem was written, the chanson de geste, which has come down to us only in part, called "the Ciclo de Nanteuil", and Philip de Nanteuil was inspired by the first chivalric code medieval. Family members of the Natoli perform several Sénéchal de France, a position that was later resized because with more power than the Kings of France, the Natoli family belong to the Popes and archbishops, and San Antonio Natoli da Patti, author of several miracles. The Natoli financed the cathedral of Beauvais, one of the most important symbols of Christianity.

The town, born as a feudal village at the foot of the medieval Norman castle, expanded from 1597 onwards, when King Philip II granted Giovanni Natoli (Gianforte or Giovanni Forti Natoli), the title of prince of Sperlinga, and the privilege of to be able to make land there.

Prince Natoli had the church dedicated to St. John the Baptist built outside the walls of the Castle, whose first parish deeds date back to 1612 and developed the whole village. The son Francesco Natoli ceded the castle and the feudal property to the Oneto in 1658, with the title of Dukes of Sperlinga, but the Natoli kept forever the title of princes of Sperlinga, for all their descendants, and not only for the firstborn, both in the male and female line.