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CEFALU
81km (50 miles) E of Palermo, 38km (24 miles) NE of Termini
Imerese, 170km (106 miles) W of
Messina.
Situated on the Tyrrhenian coast Cefalu lies between the sea
and a rocky limestone outcrop,
Cefalù is a town of narrow
medieval streets, small squares,
and historic sights. Soaring 278m
(912 ft.) above the town is La
Rocca, a massive cliff. The Greeks
thought it looked like a head so
they named the village Kephalos,
which in time became Cefalù. The
city is one of Northern Sicily’s
larger and busier cities. Though
it is not as important as
Taormina, it can be proud of its
growth as it was once a small
fishing village. It has a splendid
sandy beach, a Romanesque
cathedral and a museum that houses
Antonello da Messina's
masterpiece, Portrait of an
Unknown Man. Cefalu
was shown in the Oscar winning
film Cinema Paradiso.
Cefalu was founded by the Sikels and there are
records to show that the city was
inhabited in the ninth century BC.
Also by the fifth century BC it
was an important outpost of Imera.
The city prospered in the
Byzantine era, but repeated
Saracen raids drove away its
citizens, and they did not return
till 1131, when Roger II ordered that the town be
reconstructed along with his grand
design for a cathedral.
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