Pollen

In the heart of Madonie Park

Traditionally identified as Apollonia, ancient colony of Magna Graecia, Pollina is just over 15 kilometers from Cefalù. The town, perched on a mountainous relief, is included in the Madonie Park, a protected area of great natural interest of about 40 thousand hectares, and is famous for the production of manna, obtained from the ash of the area.

The proximity to the Tyrrhenian Sea has favored the tourist development of the area since the 70s, when on the project of the architect Foscari was built, on the lines of the Greek theater, an outdoor theater made of a Dolomite rock, with a particular color half pink and half white, hence the name of "Pietrarosa". The village is dominated by the Tower of Maurolico, an integral part of the defensive system of the Castle of Pollina, which from 1548 to 1550 was used by the mathematician Francesco Maurolico as an astronomical observatory. We recommend you visit the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, which houses masterpieces of Sicilian art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, such as the marble statue of the Madonna della Grazia of 1514 and the sculptural group of the Nativity created by Antonello Gagini of 1526.

On the second Sunday of July, on the occasion of the feast of the patron saint of San Giuliano, the village comes alive with four particularly suggestive processions, including a field with the simulacrum of the Saint, starting from the Church of San Giuliano.