Madonie Regional Natural Park

Madonie (It: Parco Naturale Regionale delle Madonie) is a regional natural park in Sicily, Italy near Cefalù.

Understand

The park includes about 162 km². The park is an inhabited area with dozens of little villages and small towns, many of which trace their origins to medieval times. The park is also home to castles and many ancient churches.

Madonie Geopark is a member of the European Geoparks Network and the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network.

History

The regional park was created in 1989. Within the park area there are outcrops of rocks which have been dated at over a 200-million-year period and represent all aspects of the geology of Sicily apart from the current volcanic activity.

Landscape

The park includes the Madonie mountain range and some of the highest mountains in Sicily. The park has six mountains that are over 1,500 metres (4,900 feet) and many more that are over 1,000 metres (3,300 ft). The highest is Pizzo Carbonara at 1,979 metres (6,493 feet), second in height in Sicily only to Mount Etna.

Flora and fauna

The wild mountainous slopes are inhabited by fallow deer (were introduced in the 1980s), wild boar, red fox, rabbits, wildcats and Bonelli's eagles.

One of the park's most notable natural features is the extensive forest of beech trees found only at 1,500 metres (4,900 feet) and above. It is a habitat to the rare, nearly-extinct Nebrodi fir tree. These are the most southerly beech forests in Europe. Lower down, below 1,600 metres (5,200 feet), there are large forests of holm oak, downy oak and cork oak, and around Castelbuono and Pollina the rare manna ash is still farmed. The mountains contain some 1500 species and sub-species of plants, around 60% of all those found in Sicily. These include more than 70 different species of orchid.

Park information

• Park website

Sleep

• 1 Feudo San Giorgio (Agriturismo Madonie Palermo), C.da San Giorgio S.S. 120, Km 45,990, ☏ +39 0921 600690. Check-in: 12:00, check-out: 11:00. Feudo San Giorgio Farmhouse, Sicily, in the heart of the Madonie Park, Palermo province, close to Castellana Sicula and Polizzi Generosa. €40-45 in b&b.