The ancient and fascinating village of Scopello located 40 km from the city of Trapani and 10 km from Castellammare del Golfo rises in one of the most suggestive natural and landscape contexts of western Sicily.
Set on a small cliff, it is a wild place, with a rural charm, linked to the traditions of the past..
The name Scopello derives from the Greek Skopelòs which means rock, in fact one of the main attractions are certainly the two wonderful stacks that dominate the landscape.
The village is very intimate and develops around the seventeenth-century Baglio with a quadrilateral shape, inside a small paved square where characteristic local activities arise all around, such as restaurants or craft shops. The village itself with its small square and a stone trough takes us back to a time long gone when this place was the scene of historical events.
According to some scholars, the beauty of the place was taken up by Homer, who set the last stage of Ulysses there, before returning to Ithaca: the Isola dei Feaci would be precisely the bay of Scopello. But there are also the legends and tales of the village's elders who tell of the hunting trips of Ferdinand III of Bourbon, king of the two Sicilies in the Scopello wood, once home to deer, wolves and wild boars, who elected it to the rank of royal reserve. There is also no shortage of fishermen's stories related to the tuna fishery and tuna fishing. Not very far from the Baglio there is in fact the Tonnara di Scopello, where centuries of culture and seafaring tradition are enclosed. According to authoritative sources, tuna fishing was practiced even before the advent of the Romans and, near the current tonnara, the mythical city of Cetaria extended, so called for the exceptional abundance of pelagic fish in its sea.
It is thought that the Arabs rebuilt it and used it, handing down this noble art over the centuries. The last slaughter of the Scopello tonnara took place in the eighties.
What characterizes and distinguishes these places are certainly the postcard scenarios: a reddish cliff overlooks a gulf bathed by a very transparent blue sea, from which two high stacks emerge that dominate the panorama. The remains of the ancient tonnara remain as evidence of the strong link with the sea that has marked the history of this village, and a bit of all of Sicily.
Small culinary info, if you pass by Scopello you must necessarily taste the typical cunzato bread famous throughout the province.
What to see in Scopello
Faraglioni beach
The Tonnara of Scopello
Guidaloca beach