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Most of your genealogical research for Lentini, Sicily will be in two main record types: civil registration (''registri dello stato civile'') and church records (''registri ecclesiastici''). This article will teach you methods for locating and searching these two record groups. In addition, cemetery records can be helpful to researchers. Online cemetery sites can be a useful source. | Most of your genealogical research for Lentini, Sicily will be in two main record types: civil registration (''registri dello stato civile'') and church records (''registri ecclesiastici''). This article will teach you methods for locating and searching these two record groups. In addition, cemetery records can be helpful to researchers. Online cemetery sites can be a useful source. | ||
==History and Geography== | |||
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Syracuse Syracuse Province] (Wikipedia) | *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Syracuse Syracuse Province] (Wikipedia) | ||
=== City of Lentini === | === City of Lentini === | ||
'''Lentini''' (Sicilian: ''Lintini'', historically '''Liuntini'''; Latin: ''Leontīnī''; Ancient Greek: Λεοντῖνοι) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Siracusa, southeastern Sicily (Southern Italy). | '''Lentini''' (Sicilian: ''Lintini'', historically '''Liuntini'''; Latin: ''Leontīnī''; Ancient Greek: Λεοντῖνοι) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Siracusa, southeastern Sicily (Southern Italy). | ||
=== History === | |||
The city was founded by colonists from Naxos as Leontini in 729 BC, which in its beginnings was a Chalcidian colony established five years earlier in Magna Graecia. | |||
It is virtually the only Greek settlement in Sicily that is not located on the coast, founded around 10 km inland. | |||
In Roman times it seems to have been of small importance. It was destroyed by the Saracens in 847 AD, and almost completely ruined by the earthquake of 1693. After the complete destruction caused by the 1693 earthquake Lentini was entirely rebuilt in the 17th century keeping the present urban street configuration. | |||
[http://www.lentinionline.it/lentini_mappa_centro.jpg Map of Historic Center of Lentini] | |||
=== Church History === | |||
Lentini's churches include: | |||
* ''Santa Maria la Cava e Sant'Alfio'': Chiesa Madre ("Mother Church of St Mary of the Cave and St Alphius"): Baroque church built after the 1693 earthquake by Vincenzo Vella of Malta. It has a basilica plan with three naves; the three-order facade is from the 18th century. The central portal has scenes of the martyrdom of Saints Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyrinus. The interior houses a 12th-century Byzantine icon. | |||
* ''Santissima Trinità e San Marziano'' ("Holy Trinity and St Marcian"): church was built over the ruins of the 16th-century Palazzo La Palumba. It has a noteworthy pavement in ceramic of Caltagirone (18th-century) and a polyptych of Antonello da Messina's school. The high altar tabernacle is made of lapis lazuli. | |||
* ''Chiesa dell'Immacolata'' ("Church of Mary of the Immaculate Conception"): 17th-century church, which houses a Romanesque lion sculpture, a ''Christ at the Column'' and the tombstone of Queen Mary (1402). | |||
* ''San Luca'': (St Luke) church has a canvas depicting St Francis of Assisi, attributed to the school of Bassano and other artworks. Next to the church are the remains of the Castle of Frederick II, the hypogeum of St. Lucy with 14th-century frescoes, the Crucifix Grottoes with frescoes from the 12th–17th centuries and the ruins of the old parish church of San Pietro (16th century). | |||
* ''San Francesco di Paola'': 18th-century church with a rare organ and artworks from churches which were destroyed by the 1693 earthquake. | |||