Lentini:  The history

The Myth

The antecedent period the Greek colonization of Leontinoi is wound in the myth. Of civilizations preelleniches remain the recoveries in the archaeological zones, particularly walled caves, huts of the italic type and portrayed coins. According to Sebastiano Pisano Baudo, that he has written, drawing to full hands to mythology, History of ancient and modern Lentini, the first tenants of the fields leontinis were the lestrigonis near populations to the ciclopis, that resided on the Etna. A head of this people, whose name has been handed down for wisdom and the value, is Antifate. Recalling Greek mythological authors, Humerus, describes above all the lestrigonis as evolved populations, devoted mainly to the sheep-breeding and you organize under a federate government, denying the representation of them as uncivil giants and even antropofagi. Considering them pacific, but very patriotic, it justifies the slaughter of the followers of Ulisse, described in the odyssey. The same author, quoting Tucidide, Polibio and others, thinks that the city of Camesena, founded by Cam, king of the Saturn, rose in the fields leontini and pits the first Sicilian city. In following epoches the lestrigonis, advancing in civilization, sicanis were called, from Sicano, their more illustrious and brave hero. Besides the sheep-breeding they were devoted to agriculture, particularly to the crop of fodders. For Pisano Baudo the myth of Cerere finds origin in the attitude to cultivate the wheat from the sicanis. She/he remembers that, according to mythology, Cerere was given birth to by Cam Saturno and from Guilty and opina that she/he married Sicano. To her they were attributed you read them that they regulated the sheep-breeding and agriculture and Tesmofora was called, creative of wealth, Mallefora, door wool and Melafora, door sheep. From the couple it came to the light Proserpina, very beautiful between the beautiful ones, that Ogre, king of the molossis, abducted in the you press of the Bevaio (Biviere) of Lentini and not in the ennese or to Catania, as others affirm. In the myth of the fields leontini also finds Ercole to place, head of the carbolic ones, that, after having killed Erice and founded Mozia, it was moved to east of the Trinacria recalled from the myth of Cerere, to which sacrificed a bull in the you press some source of the Ciane. The sicanis, fearing the invasion fenicia, organized a numerous army and they entrusted the guide to of it to six commanders: Leucaspi, Pediacrate, Bufona, Caucate, Cigeo and Crisida. The carbolic ones, quite afraid, strong some audacity of the proper head they engaged the battle and they defeated the sicanis. Ercole was distinguished for strength and courage killing the six hostile heads. Comes to the fields leontini, he was welcomed by a I exult. Thankful, he left eternal signs of his passage having stately monuments built. A medal, raffigurante a naked man with the patera, that sacrifices near a ploughs, holding in hand a twig of bowline, has to the Pisano Baudo said that it concerns Ercole that sacrifices to Cerere. It seems, however, that the myth of Ercole has been in the fields leontini celebrated for centuries and straight it is had the name originated Leonzio from the lion killed from the hero fenicio. It writes Pisano Baudo that Leonzio, profited by the symbolic Ercole and very admired by the carbolic ones, it became day by day more populated, acquiring great renown for laboriousness and civilization. But when there were the appalling eruptions of the Etna that devastated the whole area, the sicanis, afraid, they were retired to west of the island. The area came subsequently repopulated by the sicolis, driven from the king Sicolo, from which taken name the whole island. With the colonization of the sicolis, Leonzio was chosen capital of the region leontina. Well soon pushed by expansionistic aims, the sicolis entered in war with the sicanis, taking to ransack their countries. Hostilities stopped with it stipulates it of an essay of peace that fixed the confinements between the respective territories. The contrasts, however, immediately took back almost and he returned to make war.  The permanent state of war upset the economic and civil development of both the populations. Reasons, being reached up to them the fame of Euo for these, correct and wise man, that had taught to the sailors the use of the sails, they entrusted Xuto to its child, also thought wise and equitable like the father, the government of both people. Since the chosen person revealed to the height of the assignment, the region that goes to the Simeto up to Leonzio was called Xutia. In the following ages it was sustained peace and prosperity, because the successors of Xuto were always select as him excellent between the good ones.

The Greek Age

The city of Lentini has been founded, according to the tradition derived by Tucidide, from Greek farmers, deriving from Calcide, that, under the guide of a certain Tukles (Teocle), they occupied the hills to south of the rich plain alluvial of the Simeto. But many centuries before the foot calcidese stamped on the earth of Sicily, populations of varied origin had occupied the same hills. Between these populations, a people of peninsular origin that the historians have identified with the Siculi. They stop in Sicily by Italy (where they lived) running away the Opici,sus floats or in some other way. They stop in Sicily by Italy (where they lived) running away the Opici,sus floats or in some other way. Comes in Sicily, being a big people, wins in battle the Sicanis and they sends away them toward the southern and western parts of the country. This population, that bases his economy on agriculture, but on the fishing and on the commerce also practiced through I climb it of Castelluccio, he appropriates on the hill of Metapiccola, giving origin to an installation that the researchers have identified with the mythical Xouthia. Contemporarily, on the surrounding necks they continue to provision native people, that seem to have maintained with the Siculis you compare friendly and that they continue to also occupy the same zone when of the Siculis are lost the traces. They are these people that the calcidesis find on the hill of St. Mauro in the 729 o,come it is more probable, in the 751-750 a.C. At first the Calcidesis cohabit with the native, but then they chase them from St. Mauro with the collaboration of the Megaresis, with which they have made common city, forcing them to take office on the surrounding necks up to the definitive absorption. Agriculture, particularly the cultivation of the bowline, that we find again in the representations monetali, and the breeding of the horses they are prevailing economic activities, that determine the social status of the dominant class, the riders (ippeis). To this class it belongs the first tyrant of the Sicilian history, Panezio, that, on ending of the VII century a.C., taking advantage some war for motives for border with Megara, takes power to Leontini. The city, that is directed for a lot of time from an oligarchical regime, has very soon a big development and going out from the narrow limits of St. Mauro, occupies the necks surrounding and deep new colonies (Euboia). The wealth of the city, very florid is from the agricultural point of view that arouses well soon the appetites of the varied powerful persons that are competed for the dominion of Sicily in this period from that commercial. Attached and occupied by Ippocrate of it Freezes in the 494 a.C., Leontini loses independence and it is forced to enter in a military alliance, first under the control of it Freezes (that it installs you Enesidemo), and then of Syracuse, that transforms it in a military fortress for the control of the territory. In the 476 a.C., Ierone, gentleman in Syracuse, deports to Leontini the inhabitants in Nasso and Catania, after having sent away them from their city. The end, with Trasibulo, some dynasty of the Dinomenidis brings liberty, that comes however threatened by the adventure of Ducezio to Leontini that in the zone of the Palicis it tries to realize a personal dominion on the model of the Greek tyrannical states. Surrounded from hostile from every part, Leontini applies to Athens, to which is united with a military essay in the years around half the V century a.C. In front of the actions in Syracuse, that it doesn't hide his aims of dominion on the whole Sicily, the preceding alliance is renewed in the 433 a.C. In the 427 a.C., an embassy, driven from the retore leontino Gorgia, he is sent to Athens to pleade the cause of the allies (the cities calcidesi, Camarina and Reggio) against Syracuse. The novelty of his speech, that binds the listeners, but the affairs that Athens has in the island, convince also the Greek city to intervene in Sicily militarily. The circumstances of the war are alternate and they are ended with the conference of it Freezes (424 a.Cs.), in which the independence of the varied cities siceliote is settled, the expulsion in Athens from Sicily, and of fact the supremacy in Syracuse. To Leontini the end of the hand war peace. They are caught fire again, in fact, immediately the struggles between aristocrats, tied up to Syracuse and democrats, tied up to Athens. These last ones ask the redistribution of earths and the widening of the law of vote, with the concession of the political laws to many new city. To not be forced to surrender a part of their power, the aristocrats address in Syracuse, that intervenes immediately. The democrats are expelled and they are dispersed in varied parts of Sicily, the noble move in Syracuse, of which they get the citizen. To prevent that in the future is surprised us, the fortifications are destroyed. The territory is englobed in the chora in Syracuse and Leontini it stays deprived of inhabitants, except the servile workers to the dependences of the aristocrats. After some year, however, the noble, don't satisfy any treatment that reserves them the new country, they do return city and together with the democrats they make raids against the Siracusanis from the district strengthened of Foceas and from the fortitude of Brikinnia. The new situation, that she/he sees the democrats to receives it, it pushes Athens to intervene in favor of the ancient allied. In fact, she/he answers to the applications of help that are formulated by Segesta positively, in the war against Selinunte, allied of Syracuse, and from the exiled Leontinis, that ask to be put again in their city. It has beginning so the second Athenian consignment that ends with the definitive defeat in Athens, which, wisecrack to the Assinaro, sees the really left army to die of hunger and of difficulties in the latomies, while Leontini sees to fade away once more the dream of liberty (413 a.Cs.). To accent the state of subjection towards Syracuse, here that of there the city is occupied from the citizens of Akragas to a few, 200.000 persons (406 a.Cs.), and immediately afterwards from the inhabitants of it Freezes and of Camarina, allied of Syracuse in the war against Cartagine. The end of the war, with the defeat in Syracuse, door to the autonomy of Leontini, that is found again after so much time free from the powerful near. Independence lasts little. In fact, to the departure of the Cartaginesis from Sicily, Dionisio, regains it from a little become tyrant in Syracuse and it deports once more the inhabitants to Syracuse. The city is transformed and it becomes in the scheme simply siracusano a city store, in which to preserve provisions for the war in the deposits to such necessity built. At the end of the war not can pay the mercenaries, Dionisio surrenders the city to them in exchange for the behind salaries. In the struggles that are let loose in Syracuse for power between Dionisio II and Dione, Leontini it sides for this last and it is involved thin to be occupied partially by Filisto, general of Dionisio. In the following period, that she/he sees the dissension between the corinzio Timoleonte and Iceta, general siracusano, Leontini takes the parts of the second. The defeat of Iceta is handed behind for Leontini once more depopulation with the deportation to Syracuse of the citizens of popular part. During the kingdom of Agatocle, Leontini passes from a phase of support to the monarch siracusano to the alliance with the Cartaginesis. Agatocle, to the return from Africa where he had brought the war, punishing it some betrayal massacres the political executives and their followers of it. During the intervention in Italy of Pirro, Leontini together with Syracuse and to Akragas calls the king epirota in help against Cartagine. In that occasion, the tyrant of Leontini, Eraclide, offers the city to Pirro with the castles and a contingent of 4000 soldiers and five hundred horses (278 a.Cs. )  La departure of Pirro from Sicily leaves Leontini firmly in hand in Syracuse. During the first war punica enjoys of a period of peace, inserted like it is in the alliance which it has forced her the gentleman in Syracuse, Ierone II, that succeeds to not stay involved in the struggle between Rome and Cartagine, managing him between the one and the other power. The death of Ierone and the ascent to the throne of Ieronimo, his nephew, that in the second war punica sides for Cartagine, they represent the last action of the existence of Leontini. Ieronimo, young of sixteen years it is approached with the army and with the regal treasure to Leontini, at the edge of the Roman province, to proceed to the operations of war. Come Quivi, however, victim of a conspiracy falls from the party filoromano. While, in fact, it is bringing him in plaza for a narrow street, Ieronimo is surrounded by the conspirators and pierced through to hits of dagger. Leontini, abandoned by the conspirators, it becomes a little afterwards the base of the operations of the filocartaginesis, expelled by Syracuse. The people attach and a Roman department and Rome destroy it asks the leaving of the Cartaginesis. The disdainful answer of the Leontinis, that they hope in the help of Annibale that in Italy he is bringing a hard attack to Roman strengths, it provokes the intervention armed with the Romans. Attached by all the parts, destroyed the boundaries, the city soccombe(214 a.Cs.). Leontini enters in the orbit in Rome and it loses his autonomy definitely.

Roman And Byzantine period

A few and thin the relative news to Leontini under the dominion in Rome. Framed in first moment between the cities decumane, submitted to the payment of the tenth part of the picked one, it is changed to a few to a few in the city censoria, to whose territory is given in lease city of other cities behind payment of a pre-arranged canon. At the end of the The century a,C., the territory of Leontini is used for the gifts to the allies of the triumviris. The city enters in a period of great decadence, it disappears practically as city, while the population prefers to move in the countries and in the farms scattered in the territory. Entirely you consent almost the relative news to the city in imperial period. The a few information come up to us are inserted in the context of the circumstances of the saints martyrs Alfio, Filadelfo and Cirino, clearly legendary and therefore of little utility. According to the tradition, the church leontina is one of the first ones to affirm that Maria is mother of God, before this truth of faith comes officially proclaimed by the council of Efeso (431 d.Cs.) .  After the conquest from the Barbarians, Lentini, together with the whole Sicily, in the 535 d.C., it enters to belong to the Byzantine dominion and it suffers the consequences of the bird of prey oriental government. On this period they are a few the news. Certainly he knows that Lentini is Episcopalian center, at least beginning from the VII century d.C., and that he is chosen for entertaining a masculine monastery. This done is inserted in the politics of the pope of the time Gregorio Magno, which tries to oppose to the tendency of the Sicilian church of that period valiantly to follow in the religious field oriental and Byzantine experience that he also manifests in the use of the Greek language. The choice of Lentini is not casual and it shows that it is an important center of big prestige, that can give a big contribution in the struggle for the “occidentalizzazione” of Sicily. To enact the big role of the “vescovato” of Lentini, the prestige of which enjoys near the court of Constantinople the last bishop of Lentini, Costantino. These, in fact, sferrata from the papacy against the Byzantine empire, is entrusted from the empress Irene in the 785 d.C on the occasion of the struggle against iconoclasm. to deliver to the pope a letter in which the pontiff is invited to participate in the council of Constantinople (initial center). The entrusted assignment is delicate and the bishop is chosen because already known from the pope and for the role of zipper that the Sicilian church assumes in this arc of time between Rome and Bisanzio. During the council that is unwound to Nicea (September 787 d.Cs.), the prelate actively participates and he has the honor to speak for first between the Sicilian bishops. With Costantino, the “vescovato” of Lentini stops existing.

Arabic And Norman period

It is drawn near, meanwhile, to big footsteps the dominion of the Moslems. Them, nell'847 d.Cs., Lentinis besiege and, exploiting to them favor the plan of defense that had been designed by the inhabitants of the city, conquers it massacring a good number of inhabitants. During the Moslem dominion, Lentini lives like a calm agricultural suburb and it must enjoy of a certain comfort, partly commercial, if the descriptions of the Arabic geographers praise the houses of stone and the river traffic, that it is unwound through the river St. Leonardo that is navigable up to the city of it. To everything this is also necessary to add the fact that Lentini enjoys of a some strategic importance because of his fortifications, so much that the geographer Arabic Edrisi defines it strong fortress. Fallen under the dominion of the Norman ones, Lentini is framed in the Strategato in Messina, while to the noble leontinis, Alanfranco and Alaimo, the castles of Militello, Ossino and Hidria are granted with the respective territories. Lentini decays subsequently, its population decreases drastically and accordingly it is held up by a vicecomite. To increase the population is favored the transplantation to Lentini of a colony of Cosentini, that damage the name to a district of the city. Despite decadence, however, Lentini maintains all his territory and the warehouses, that do one I untie important some of the road system of the epoch, while continuous to produce wheat in big quantity, that comes exported also in the whole Sicily in the periods of carestia.  The earthquakes of 1140 and, above all they determine the ulterior one of l169, because of which many buildings collapse I degrade some city, that is reorganized, also losing, very probably, the navigability of the river and the direct contact with the sea because of the burial of the course of water, while it is realized, with an artificial obstruction to work probably of the Templaris, the lake Biviere. The fates of the city is good for it, at least in a first moment, with the advent to the throne of Fred II. The construction of the church of the Murgo is begun, in the you press of Agnone, that must be entrusted Cistercensi to the monks; the emperor grants the Slush a little afterwards to the Templaris with law of fishing in the river, that from that moment in then it assumes the name of St. Leonardo, for a church devoted to the saint in the you press; in the 1223 Lentini is chosen as center for the reunion of the first Sicilian parliament, in which is settled that the first May and the first November of every year it must be proceeded in a public assembly to the presentation of the complaints against operates him of the executioners and of the persons dressed again of public authority. All this doesn't prevent to the lentinesis to participate in the rebellion, departed from Messina against the emperor, his centralizing politics and his fiscal system and of consequent control. The lentinesis, lend listening to the flatteries of Vinito of Palagonia in this occasion and they swear fidelity to the pope. The revolt soothed immediately and the return of the normalcy ' in the The reigns they allow Fred to gather to Manner in 1239-40 the parliament of the communes of the kingdom. Between the eleven cities Sicilian calls to intervene, Lentini, that we find close to Syracuse, Messina, Catania etc. The to have consequences on the relationships between the emperor and the city there was room for the adhesion. In fact, to improve the military control on the urban center, the old castle is repaired (castrum vetus) on the hill Tirone while on the northern layers of St. Mauro another castle is built for the funs of the emperor (castellum novum). The motives for the malcontent towards the emperor however are not stopped and they have a base reality in the situation of crisis of agriculture, particularly feudal. It is not a case if during 1247-48, the reintegratoreses, official regal orders note reinstating the feuds, finds to Lentini, but also to Syracuse, quite a lot contracts between feudal and bourgeois, for which many grounds have been sold, while others, empty, sterile or little profits but demania feudorum, has been given in estate to plant you vineyard behind payment of money. To the court of Fred II, meanwhile, the school is developed poetic Sicilian that sees in position of foreground a citizen of Lentini, Jacopo, notary of court, thought universally the sonetto.La's inventor died of Fred, in 1250 it gives free street to the pope to intervene in the circumstances of Sicily. And it is under the protection of the Church that Lentini, together with Palermo and to other cities, him Common proclamation, affirming his autonomy towards the Svevis, in 1254, under the guide of the noble Ruggiero Fimetta. Liberty lasts a few, however, and in 1256, to Favara, the army leontino is defeated, many soldiers are killed, quite a lot they are been saved with the escape, while the Fimetta him rinserra in the fortress of Lentini, succeeding with a lot of probability to save life with the exile, following the fate of the count Alaimo, also hostile to the Svevi. s

ANGIOINI And ARAGONESI

In 1266 it is caught fire again to the death of Manfredi I meet it between the pope, that supports the Angiòs and the Svevis, represented by the young Corradino. To Lentini it is turned on a dispute between the promoters of the one and the others. The followers of the angioinis, ferracani, him rinserrano in the strengthened zones (Tirone and Castello)da which check the city, but then they are surrendered for lack of water and because they are realized that the rivals, stinking, as the followers of the Svevis were called then, they have started to dig galleries under the fortifications to make her unstable. To this also Lentini it is declared supporter of Corradino. Defeated Corradino in the battle of Tagliacozzo, Lentini she/he remains faithful to the Svevis and it follows the fates of it, the army welcoming between his boundaries. In the battle of Sciacca, victory arride to the Svevis, but a little afterwards, with the taking of Centuripe, Sicily passes in the hands of French. The Angioinis had not come in Sicily to bring liberty and well soon if they realize all of it, above all those that the Svevis have supported and therefore they are naturally in odor of suspect. In fact, between the first actions of the new government there is the increase of the garrisons in the castles scattered in varied parts of Sicily, that guarantee a capillary control of the territory against possible revolts (1278). Between the castles it deals a place of relief that with Lentini, that he sees populated by a big number of soldiers, to which a commission is guaranteed of well 100 corpses of mile. This treatment, totally dissimilar from how much it happened first (1272), it puts the garrison of Lentini strategically to the peer of the more important castles of Messina, Palermo ecc.  If they also realize the noble that have supported them of it. As in other occasions of foreign intervention, many had supported the Angioinis, in hate to the old rulers, perhaps hoping in an amelioration of their social conditions. But the same were always ready to not change master as soon as the new one showed to want to do again some expenses sustained for the enterprise. It must not be underestimated, besides, the fact that a lot of noble families hope to draw some benefits deprived from the consequent dynastic change to a foreign invasion. Between these, the count Alaimo that, order in exile from the Svevis out of Sicily, makes for you return, to the succession of French, after the battle of Benevento (1266) it takes part to the struggle in favor of the Angioinis and in 1274 it is rewarded for its fidelity from the king Charles with the nomination to Executioner in the Principality and in the earth of Benevento. In 1279 it gets the charge of Secrezia of Sicily (office that he got paying a rent and that it was dealt some collection of some tributes) and in 1282 you/he/she is raised to the position of Strategoto in Messina. French are not different from all the other invaders that have stamped on the Sicilian ground and their fiscalismo it is not different from that of the other populations that had come in Sicily. But the economic situation is changed, and in worse, famines are not infrequent and this makes appear the taxes that you/they are imposed even more greedy, even if Lentini seems to suffer less than the others, if in 1281 she/he succeeds to furnish ottomila to Messina corpses of wheat on the trentamilas of which it has need the city of him narrow. The reaction to the injustices of French not him her to attend and April 2 nd 1282, to Palermo, the revolt of the Evening, fomented from the noble and with the support of the Spaniards. Lentini rises up on April 5. Also exasperated because the governor Papirio Comitini, some day first, have imposed a forced contribution that is superior to the finances of the city, the citizens, assault the castle to the command of Giovanni You Lumia where the governor is confined him and, imprisoned fattolos, kill it. The same fate they suffer all the French that are been in the city, that of there to a few it is risen to Common free, with the jurisdiction on Militello, Palagonia, Francofonte and Sortino. To hold up the life of the Commune is elected captain of people Giovanni Foresta. The war of the Evening had not been a republican movement for town autonomy and well soon the knots of the Sicilian politics come to the comb with the intervention of the Aragonesis that they operate exactly towards the population like the Angioinis you/they had operated. Disappointed many they stay above all gods noble that had abandoned French, hoping to have from the new masters very more than what you/they had given the old allies to them. Between them the count Alaimo, that Manfredi had abandoned for Charles of France, abandons this last for Pietro in Aragon, that gives immense possessions to him, and then it enters in combutta again with Charles hoping for possession, in this continuous to change flag, ulterior, personal, territorial advantages. Fallen in misfortune near the Spaniards, you/he/she is had for drowning died in sea. Died the king Pietro in 1285, the child it takes over him James that names the brother Fred viceroy of Sicily. These, of accord with the barons, in 1296 it is let king of Sicily crown with the name of Fred III. In the struggle that is opened immediately between Fred, from a side and James, to which are each other allied the kingdom in Naples and the Papacy, from the other, Lentini is lined up Fred's in favor. These, come to Lentini in 1299, where it organizes the defenses, strengthening the castle and assembling them his strengths. After the peace of Caltabellotta (1302), she/he returns to Lentini, where you/he/she is welcomed festively and where it receives homages from the population. In that occasion it rewards his faithful, honoring the soldiers that better had served it of noble titles (between these the You Lumia, the Sgalambros, the Passanetos). In this way, if it still ties more the supporters, widen also the bases of the feudalism on which its monarchy was founded to oneself. The city is rewarded of its fidelity with the concession of the use of the customs in Messina in 1313.

The War Between Patrician Families

With the successors it lets loose the struggle between the patrician families, that it characterizes the history of Sicily for many years and she/he sees lined up on one side or from the other the Chiaramontes and the Ventimiglias. Lentini sides for the Spanish kings and it comes repeatedly attacked, suffering serious consequences. To repay it of the damages suffered during the wars, the Spanish kings do the city a series of concessions. The number of the subject commodities to excise is enlarged to satisfy the contracted debts, to mend the boundaries and to build ramparts for January castello(13 th 1339, Pietro II); the title of city is granted with dignity of Senate, the Patrician's office and use of the seal (January 19 th 1339, Pietro II); finally, the city can confiscate the proceedses of the excise of wine, while the commodities are exonerated by the payment of the customs (September 4-5 th 1349, Ludovico). Peace, signed in 1350, hard a few and Lentini, fortitude in the hands of Manfredi Chiaramonte, becomes the base for the operations against Catania, lined up on the other slope, and against the Ventimiglias, but also the objective of the reaction of the regal troops. In 1359 you/he/she is besieged by the regal army to you order of Artale Alagona to him. The city, well defended on the axle constituted by the two castles it withstands for a lot of time. At the end, thanks to the defection of the commander of the troops you/he/she is occupied and abandoned to the looting. For last you/he/she is occupied the castle because of the betrayal of the soldiers that you/they treat secretly with Artale and they deliver the castle and the family ones to him of Manfredi Chiaramonte. For exhaustion of the strengths of the contenders he arrives at the end once more to peace. The following period sees once more Sicily it plunders some struggles between the noble families that, taking advantage some lack of a strong king, is appropriated of big part of earths demaniali. This situation has end in 1392 when Martin, that has married Maria, Fred's IV daughter, conquest militarily the island, imposing its dominion and trying to recover the real prerogatives that had been usurped from the vassals and from the cities. It is encountered with the opposition of the barons, to which, if from a side it grants the ratification of the usurped grounds, from the other one it tries to subtract the administration of justice summoning to oneself the last degree of judgment. Numerous cities ask exemptions and between these Lentinis that introduce the own titles of worth (king's diplomas Fred and of king Pietro) and it gets, also being a city demaniale, the mere and mixed imperio, that is to also administer justice for the crimes for which are foreseen the punishment of the exile, the mutilation or the sentence to death. Besides, a little afterwards (1395), it gets all the traditional exemptions and that privileges (title of city, use of the seal, etc. ) granted from the king Pietro, but ever had because of the war. For better checking the vassals and to avoid abuses of any type, in the 1408 king Martin proceeds to a census of the feuds and the vassals. Lentini enumerates in this occasion 34 feuds and as many feudal. Meanwhile, in 1402, Queen Maria has died, that has been buried in the church of the PPs. Cappuccini, and Martin marries the princess Bianca to which entrusts reginale of which reenters to do part the territory of Lentini decreased of the Biviere and of the Slush to the reborn Chamber, entrusted to two faithful servants of the king. Martin dies in 1409 and the father, that you/he/she happens him, you/he/she dies afterwards the year. The advent to the throne of Alfonso (1416) it worsens the situation. Lentini asks to be excluded from the Chamber reginale, but its question is not welcomed. In this period, the foreign politics of the sovereign, if from a side it increases the political power of the barons of whose support has need for the war, from the other it has the taxes increased for sopperire to the enormous military expenses. You has so an increase of the privileges of the noble that they get the concession of feuds, also of those acquired illegally. In 1434, the castle of Lentini is granted Vincent Gargallo to the noble with the mere imperio, with the possibility, therefore, to administer justice at least for the first degrees of the judgment. The tall level of the expenses, the depopulation of the countries, famines, force to the poverty a lot of cities in this very frequent period. The king, recovering money, makes recourse to a practice that will have a lot of success, the sale in feudal servitude of some cities, between which Lentini. The city is forced to repurchase own autonomy, but it falls, in consequence of the waste of resources, in a state of deep prostration and crisis.

From Charles V To the French Revolution

In 1516 salt to the throne Charles V, with which seems to turn what the most serious problem of Lentini had been thought, the affiliation to the Chamber reginale. Charles, in fact, loosens the Chamber and you/he/she incorporates all the cities in the regal demanio. But the enormous expenses of war that characterize the kingdom of Charles force the viceroy Ferdinando Gonzaga to threaten the sale once more of the city. The town administration, avoiding so big downfall, offers the payment of 20.000 gold dukedoms for the acquisition of the territory and the mere and mixed imperio with all the privileges (1537). The city, is burdened of debts and in 1540 because of these spent it is forced to impose a series of taxes to the citizens for usufruire of some laws enjoyed free antecedently. The earthquake of the December 1542 contributes to the decadence of the city, with the total destruction of the new castle, partial of the old one and of big part of the houses around. The increase of the customs on the wheat, that discourages the export, the consequent failure of the grain production, necessity to do front the debt towards the Spanish crown they throw in a state of total crisis Lentini. To accent the picture, the foundation, in 1551, of Carlentini, that, Vega, had to constitute the rampart of the defense against the Turkish invasions that the old castle of Lentini according to him didn't guarantee in the projects of the viceroy more. To populate the new city and to favor the exodus from Lentini, the viceroy it grants a series of privileges to Carlentini: terrestrial free for the construction of the house, exemption from the taxes, excises and gifts, exemption from the customs for two years, all the privileges of the city of Lentini. Despite this, the Lentinesis are refused to abandon their city, also when the Vega does recourse the blandishments, calling New Lentini the city-fortitude. Then the viceroy passes to more hard means, arriving straight to remove from Lentini the fair of April, source of big wealth, with the excuse that owes him, with the proceedses of it, to build the new Mother Church to Carlentini. The following years are extremely difficult. Famines, the regal fiscalismo, the a little profitable agrarian years (1658,1671)riducono to departed ache the city, that ten quickly, with a drastic diminution of the population, that passes from the 14.756 inhabitants of 1569 to the 7.360 of 1616 for then slowly to go up again to the 10.063 of 1681. The earthquake of 1693 destroys Lentini totally provoking an elevated number of corpses. The attempt to reconstruct the city in another site, as the duke of Camastra had foreseen, the king's vicar for the reconstruction, on plant designed by the architect between ' Angel Italy, fails miserably, it doesn't complete that probably any Church for a series of convergent oppositions. The city is reconstructed on the old site, but the operation lasts many years and it involves huge expenses. The number of the citizens is reduced meanwhile (4.369 in 1737), also because of the abandonment from many that prefer to approach in the near Carlentini that seems to not have suffered many damages for the earthquake and that she/he sees the population, that passes from the 2.751 inhabitants of 1681 to the 3.331 of 1714 to increase. Between them, numerous noble, whose number decreases drastically, so much that is not possible to guarantee the regular administration of the city with the necessary exchange. To widen the old nobility of blood he proceeds with the recognition of the new nobility of estate, which is allowed to enter in the administration of the public thing, also remaining separate and separated the privileges, with the constitution of two Ledger, of the noble and of the civilians, to which he draws for the nomination of the administrators of the city (1728, 1755). You search from the varied sovereigns that are happened of risollevare the fates of the city, but in vain. In fact, under Charles III of Borbone he thinks of the population, that has arrived to the lowest point of its history to increase (4.268 in 1747), exempting for five years from the payment of the debts, anywhere contracts, all those people that are settled in the city; the dignity of the Senate is reestablished; the city becomes Head Comarca and it has under of oneself the cities of Francofonte, Bleak, Ferla, Sortino, Melilli, Militello, Grammichele, Known, Spaccaforno, Cassaro and Palagonia (1760). But everything this is not enough and the old project is taken back to move the population to Carlentini, alleging the usual pretext of the unhealthy air and the malaria. The Senate is rebelled to idea, it appeals to the king and the project you/he/she is abandoned (1789). To the burst of the French Revolution and during the adventure napoleonica, Lentini is under Ferdinando III that in the turn that makes some island it comes in the city in 1806, where you/he/she is entertained in the building of the baron Sanzà, an exponent of the new nobiltà. 

Risorgimento

The first motions carbonaris find good ground to Lentini. They form you, in fact, two seven of carbonari, the one on the Fierce Plan, of which they do part the noble Sanzàs, Carmito, Magnano San Lio and the other in the ex convent of Saint Maria of Jesus, that sees the presence of the family Bugliarello.Queste seven they don't have very clear programs and the executives, appartenenti to the classes mediates and tall, they are in common very more parties to a future with Naples that to the separatistic aims in Palermo or to the desires of social revolution of the farmers. The revolt in Palermo against the constitution of 1820 arouses in the humblest layers of the population lentinese great enthusiasm. Gathered in plaza, the popolanis try to destroy the registers of the office of the I grind and therefore to attack a deposit of wheat. A priest's intervention, that, behind suggestion of an exponent of nobility, Fred Bugliarello, has the SS passed. Sacrament in the middle of the rebels and it conducts them in the church to adore it, door at the end of the popular tumult, while the noble assume the command of the movement. An army lentinese, Sanzà, is united to the general Florestano Pepe, that had come in Sicily to fight against Palermo to the orders of the baron and to bring back it to the reason, and it participates in the repression of the rebellious motion. The last years of the dominion borbonico is characterized from the delays in the economic development, but also from the cholera of 1837 that cause you burden social uneasiness that flow in a revolt from the political connotations. If to the beginning the motion sees together noble and popolani, the patricians immediately become account that the revolt it doesn't have a lot of possibilities of result and, for fear of a social revolution they change front, having through the notification halted those between theirs that am more radicals and more inclinable to continue the struggle. To Lentini they make the shoppings of the reaction of Of the Wheelbarrow, Tall Regal Commissioner, in all 27 persons, between which the baron Sanzà, the brothers Bugliarello and above all popolani. The baron Sanzà and one servant of his, Paul Pizzolo, is halted and municipal in the jail in Catania where they die of cholera, while all the other runs away waiting to good times, that don't delay to arrive with grace granted from the king in 1839. But the time of the Borbonis is by now at the end and they starts to bloom ideas risorgimentali, even if enough confused. To Lentini it rises a tied up secret sect to the mazziniana Young Italy. But the time of the Borbonis is by now at the end and they starts to bloom ideas risorgimentali, even if enough confused. To Lentini it rises a tied up secret sect to the mazziniana Young Italy. The time of receives it it plays January 12 th 1848 to Palermo, that is suffered followed from the whole Sicily. Lentini sticks to the movement l'1 February with a public manifesto and hoisting the tricolor. If to the beginning the revolt has a heterogeneous social character, well soon the most liberal elements of the patrician class assume the guide of it, constituting some provisional Committees that are dealt to manage the government of the cities. To Lentini, the provisional Committee sees the presence of the elements more in sight of nobility and middle class, that you/they are put in contact with the other groups of the island and they constitute a strength of one hundred men to you order of Giovanni Ielo to him to participate in the liberation of August and of Syracuse. When the troops borboniches abandon August to gather in Syracuse, Lentini sends to August a contingent of twenty men, to which if they add some little time after others forty, to prevent that the weapons of the castle of August falls in hostile hands. The reunion of the Sicilian Parliament puts to naked the problems to face, first between all that of the armed contingent constituted to a large extent from ambiguous characters, to the border with the gangsterism, possible eversoris of the social order. The contingent are loosened and a National Watch is constituted, from the characteristics of militia of class, with the principal assignment to defend the ownership. To Lentini you/he/she is called to command the battalion of the National Watch the baron Francis Beneventano. The initial enthusiasm, is lowered in the meantime. The character of class assumed by the government, the unpreparedness of the executives, incapability to resolve the problems, the international isolation they bring to the end of the motion and the return of the Borbonis quickly. To avoid problems, to Lentini the book of the minutes and the deliberations of the provisional Committee is hidden. But this doesn't mean the end of the movement risorgimentale to Lentini. In fact, a secret committee is constituted with the assignment to spread material propagandist, to organize the future insurrection in the province of Known and partly of that of Catania and to assume the direction of it. The consignment of Garibaldi gives beginning to the operations. The day 20 May Lentini rises up and it names a central Committee that calls to picked up the citizens for the war and, in the immediate one, to give help to the catanesis. A square, to which they are united voluntary of Moderate, Vizzini, Scordia, Scicli, Palazzolo, Sortino and Known, he attests to Primosole to close the street toward Syracuse and to intervene from south on Catania. After some day, the voluntary ones, on order of Garibaldi, him riconcentranos to Carlentini, march on Scordia and therefore on June 5 they enter to Catania. The Committee the same day 5 it manifests the own adhesion to the program of annexation to the kingdom of Vittorio Emanuele II and he entrusts to the dictatorship of Garibaldi. On October 21 Lentini votes compact for the annexation to the Piedmont: 1.654 are in favor the votes. February 14 th 1861, the civic Suggestion of forty members, that has supplanted the provisional Committee, introduce homages to the new government and it asks that the city of Lentini is admitted to the province in Catania. Many alleged motives and all valid ones, the distance, culture, the economy, but without result. The appeal is not taken in consideration. The passage to the unitary State represents a positive event for Lentini, with notable changes in the conditions of life of the inhabitants. Between the realizations of the unitary State, the coverage of the rivers Lisso and Carrunchio, true sewerages to open sky, the opening of new roads to improve the relationship with the country, the organization of the civil hospital, the opening of the elementary schools and techniques (1866) and of the childish kindergarten (1867), the city aqueduct that has brought drinkable water in the houses (1903). To corollary of these change conditions of life it is had an increase of the population, that passes from the 9.417 inhabitants of 1861 to the 20.578 of the beginnings of the century XX (1901), with I introduce him considerable of emigrated by other parts of Sicily. You/he/she has gone you, in the meantime, modifying the economic structure of the city. To the traditional based economy on the cultivation latifondistica of the cereals (wheat, bowline, rice), of the almond tree, of the ulivis, and on a flourishing industry of cordage and vases, if it places side by side another destined to a big development of it, that of the citrus fruit, that are produced in the near grounds to the city and exported in Europe and in the world. All this determines conditions for the birth of a strong bracciantato that sets him as primary objective an amelioration of the conditions of life, with the increase of the salaries and an agrarian reform that sets a brake to the latifondo.

Nine hundred century

The electoral reform of Giolitti, that introduces the masculine universal suffrage in 1912, represents a big occasion for the country movement and for the socialist Party, that these affairs it embodies. The democrat-socialist block in the town elections of 1914 succeeds in winning the battle against the conservative block represented by the monarchic-liberal party, that doesn't succeed in giving a stable administration to the city. The new administration, that takes over to the regal Commissioner, begins immediately the jobs that you/he/she has programmed and that you/they must give a new face to the city (the risistemazione of the old streets, Ferdinanda and of the Carmine, today Garibaldi and Count Alaimo, the setup of the principal plaza, the opening of a town pharmacy), despite the hard opposition of defeats him that they also do recourse the calumny and the mockery to put in bad light the administrators of left. The burst of the first world war interrupts the trial momentarily. You has, in general, an aggravation of the conditions of life for the least well-to-do ones, with the rationing of alimentary good, while the most elevated classes manifest their enthusiastic adhesion to the war with a public manifesto worded from the baron Beneventano. To calm the uneasiness of the war, sums of money are picked up, hill what he comes meeting to the vital demands of the popular classes that suffer the weight of the war. Lentini pays his tribute of blood to the government politics with 213 dead, 214 cripples and 55 lost, generally farmers and laborers. In the meantime, however, a lot of things are changed. A government decree that fixed to a very low level the price of the flour has produced the collapse of the wheat production. On the other hand, the legionaries that return from the war are not more the old illiterate and ignorant farmers. The contact with other social realities, above all those more advanced than the North, and with the workers of the other regions of Italy, surely more conscious from the point of view of the wage claims it determines new consciences and new aspirations. Inevitable the application of the nucleuses appears more politicized of a change of social conditions. During the war, in exchange for the active appointment, the agrarian reform had been promised with the distribution of earths. To the return, the legionaries don't find anything and rather the situation is in the meantime worsened for the inflation and for the unemployment. The occupation of uncultivated earths seems the better solution to many and this is the undertaken road. Revolutionary fighting and socialist Ex occupy hundreds of hectares of earths, that you/they are divided in small lotteries. The extension reduced of the lotteries provokes an intensive exploitation of earth, that for a long time going worsens the situation, even if to the beginning the consequences are not evident. In the greatest part of the cases you/they are installed agrumeti, in this profitable period still, even if the used systems are in wide part archaic, while scarce succession they have ideas cooperativistiche.Il I govern it is limited to take action of what happened, ratifying the occupation of earths, that reduces the social tension. But the leading problems have not been resolved and the conflicts of class are whetted. In 1922 he reaches the peak with disorders in concomitance of a comizio held from the socialist Maria Giudice. The farmers, that, in the principal plaza and in the adjacent streets you/they are participating to a political demonstration, I/you/they are made target of the bullets of the regal Watch, attested in front of the Mother Church, and of the rich ones that they shoot from the balconies on the demonstrators. These last, that is the rich ones, fears that disorders are the beginning of a possible armed revolution as the accidental explosion of a deposit of weapons and ammunition in a private house in front of the church of the SS. Trinità allows to presage and they reacts with strength of you arm it. The state of tall tension provokes dead and wounded, between the demonstrators and theirs connected. In this period you/he/she is coined for Lentini the epithet of Republic leontina. With the advent of the fascism, the social problem is not not only resolved, but they is put to keep silent the strengths of oppozione and the conditions of the farmers are gotten worse, while the latifondo, doesn't come leastly despite the official declarations notched, so much that they are been the greatest exponents of strengths that support the fascist regime between the big land owners. To hear again some politics of the fascist government they are also the specialized crops like that of the citrus fruit. To the beginnings it is verified an increase of the production, but it can not balance the due losses to the abandonment verificatosi during the war period. In every case, the production of citrus fruit doesn't touch prebellico to the productive levels of the period and rather he has a crisis, consequence of the economic politics of the government. The independent regime imposed by Mussolini, in fact, provokes the reaction of the foreign governments with serious damages for a crop, that of the citrus fruit, whose produced it comes in wide part exported and that it constitutes in the years Twenty half the Sicilian exports. The government helps, with the support of the prices on the inside market, if from a side you/they avoid a total crisis, from the other one they make seem less urgent the interventions of change colturali in direction of a diminution of the costs, favoring other States that they are leaned out on the European market as Spain. In 1930 you/they begin the jobs of reclamation of the Biviere, that must bring to the drainage of the lake, to the realization of a series of connected structures, to the construction of a village worker that owes, in the intentions of the rulers, to entertain the farmers of the 1.500 hectares of dried up earth, and to the defeat of the malaria. But it is more easy to build that to convince the farmers to live these houses that stay desolately desert, as empty they stay the hundreds of farmer's houses builds for welcoming the farmers of the Plain busy in the battle of the wheat, one of the so many lost battles from the fascism, while the problem of the malaria is not resolved. The war of Africa and the conquest of the empire seem result to the disposition for the occupational problems of the lentinesis that welcome the new colors of the Italian fashion, Adua and Macallè from the names of two of the cities conquered by the Italian army with enthusiasm. In 1940 you/he/she is approved the law against the latifondo, that should resolve the atavistic problems of the South. But it is slow, because the war, that increases the situation. Hunger, poverty, food rationing, death, destructions are the consequences of the government politics, while the phenomenons of hoarding are accented from the little privileged that have availability of good of consumption and the assaults of the desperate ones to the stores. The end of the war and the first free elections bring those strengths and that men to power that during the fascism you/they had held long live to Lentini a larvata forms of opposition and that you/they had experimented you imprison them some regime. These men drive the first struggles for the occupation of earths, the expropriations of the uncultivated feuds and the division in lotteries. The result is once more the formation of a big number of small owners, holders of too small piece of ground to allow them of lare the breakthrough, forced to an existence always in unstable balance between the new status of owners and the old job of the laborer. The fifties to Lentini is characterized on the social plan from the big struggles between the laborers, that look to the new verb that comes from the east and the old land owners and the dealers, castled on positions of retroguardia. Both the line up, also if they have the same extremism and the same in common insufficient spirit of collaboration on different positions, to go out from the crisis post - war. Demagogy and scarce programmatic sense drive the political executives of the left and the syndical strengths of the time, that bring bracciantili to the masses to fight for objective of brief breath, without keeping track of the problems of general character and perspective. The malcontent management, wish to achieve immediate results, on the wage plan and on that electoral, scarce ability of planning: they are these the characteristics of the political executives of the country masses of the time, that don't find other solution that to apply once more to the emigration toward the North of Italy or toward the foreign countries. The same qualities, demagogy and incapability planning they, finds in the management of the public thing, that door to one missed planning of the social development, economic, cultural, urbanistic, with accented phenomenons of abusiveness that have twisted the aspect of the city. The development of the industrial pole of Priolo has also favored to Lentini the birth of a rich working class that has provoked a rapid terziarizzazione of the economic fabric with forming of an intermediary class that has radically changed political conditions. The crisis of the class bracciantile, in direct consequence of the crisis of the citrus fruit and of you change her general economic conditions, you/he/she has brought to the rapid crisis of the parties of left, in foreground the communist Party, and to the ascent of the Christian Democracy that these trials it has of done driven. The last years of the life of the city are characterized from a serious decline on the demografic plan, also in consequence of a move toward the districts of new expansion in the territory of Carlentini in the region Santuzzi.

Historical documentation