According to the opinion of historians and geographers such as Ptolemy, Diodorus and Strabo, Castellammare del Golfo was born as Emporium Segestanorum, port of Segesta, a nearby city which shared the same vicissitudes until its fall.
The Arabs occupied Castellammare del Golfo from 827 AD, and called it “Al Madarig“, which means “The Steps“, probably due to an uphill steep street leading from the harbour to the area of the fortified bastion.
It was the Arabs who first built the castle fortress, later enlarged by the Normans. The arab building rose on a rocky outcrop near the sea, linked to the mainland by a wooden drawbridge.

Castellammare del Golfo counts about little more than 15,000 inhabitants, set in the gulf which gives its name.
At the foot of a rugged mountain rich in vegetation, it descends towards the sea to the small peninsula with the arab norman Castle, between two beautiful beaches.
Its story traces the vicissitudes of Sicily and its rulers, from the Arabs to the Swabians, the Spanish and the Bourbons until Garibaldi.
Its historic center reveals important evidence of this history and its traditions, with both civil and religious architecture of great importance and of considerable historical and artistic interest.

The most interesting places in Castellammare del Golfo:

The old city center

The Marina

The sandy beach “Spiaggia Playa”

Info to park the car: When you find the blu lines on the ground, you need to buy a ticket to park, normally you can find the ticket machines near the parking places. There are also some zones in the city center that are ZTL (limited traffic zones), don’t worry…the areas ZTL are marked by road signs with all the info you need.