{"id":985,"date":"2026-07-30T13:10:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medievalsicily.org\/projects\/santa-maria-di-campogrosso\/project-description\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:10:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:10:39","slug":"project-description","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/medievalsicily.org\/en\/projects\/santa-maria-di-campogrosso\/project-description\/","title":{"rendered":"Project description"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Santa Maria di Campogrosso<\/a> \u00b7 subpage<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project description<\/h1>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
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Project “Transformations in the intercultural relations of local communities in medieval Sicily after the Norman conquest in the light of archaeological research (the case of the Altavilla Milicia area)” – 2017\/25\/B\/HS3\/01699 – funded by the National Science Centre, Poland<\/p>\n

The project concerns the history of a local cult centre established in the early stages of the Norman conquest of Sicily \u2013 the church and Italo-Greek monastery known as Santa Maria di Campogrosso or San Michele del Golfo (Oliva 2008). The monastery and church, situated on a hill overlooking the nearby coast (63 m a.s.l.), formed a strategic point located between Termini Imerese and Palermo on the route running from east to west across the island, along the former Roman road Via Valeria.<\/p>\n

The Centre for Late Antique and Early Medieval Studies, IAE PAN, began excavation works in this area in connection with a broader research programme concerning the role of the Normans in shaping the cultural face of medieval Europe, on the basis of a scientific cooperation agreement with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali ed Ambientali di Palermo.<\/p>\n

The project’s principal research problem is the way in which intercultural relations developed in the local communities of medieval Sicily, in the light of interdisciplinary research with particular attention to material culture (the case of the Altavilla Milicia area).<\/p>\n

When the Norman rulers conquered Sicily, they encountered a considerable cultural mosaic. In terms of religion, they were dealing here mainly with an Islamic population (not only Arab) and a Christian one, at that time mainly Greek (Houben 1997; Loud G.A., Metcalfe A., 2002; Panarelli 2005), but also a Jewish one. This forced them to base their apparatus of power on the existing organisation (Takayama 1993), and to employ, alongside violence, the method of consensus, just as rulers did in other regions of contemporary Europe (Mo\u017adzioch S., Wiszewski P., 2013). The idyllic picture of tolerance at the court of the Norman rulers, sometimes drawn in the literature, may have taken a different shape at the local level (Palombo 2015). The project aims to address this problem from the point of view of material culture. For while the historical literature on the Norman, Byzantine and even Islamic periods in Sicily is very extensive, the archaeology of the medieval period, including the Norman period in Sicily, has only recently begun to develop (Molinari 2008).<\/p>\n

The main research problem is linked to a number of working hypotheses. The first concerns the time of the establishment and the decline of the church and monastery, the next ones concern the location and form of the monastic buildings and the functions performed by this centre.<\/p>\n

Various datings of the church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso appear in the literature, ranging from the 11th to the 15th century (Oliva 2008). According to Tommaso Fazello (1558), the founder of the monastery was Count Roger, and the founding act itself is supposed to have taken place between the victorious battle against the Muslims near Misilmeri (1068) and the capture of Palermo (1072). According to Rocco Pirri (1630), it was the initiative of Robert Guiscard. The oldest surviving document concerning the monastery dates from 1134 (Mongitore 1734). According to architectural scholars, the form and building technique of the church point to a 12th-century (V. Zori\u0107) or even 13th-century (M. Guiotto) origin of the church.<\/p>\n

At the end of the 13th century (documents from 1283 and 1284) the monastery was dissolved, and the fate of the church itself up to the 16th century is poorly known. In the 16th century it was in ruins (Fazello 1558), and its remains were plundered by pirates (Pirri 1630). In 1583, owing to the royal visitor Francesco del Pozzo, a decision was taken to deconsecrate and partially demolish the church. The excavation works aim to establish the chronology of the use of this site and its buildings.<\/p>\n

The Italo-Greek monasteries of this period did not have a spatial structure fixed by rule. Of the several dozen ‘Basilian’ monasteries founded in Sicily, mainly in its eastern part, none has survived in the form dating from the Norman period. Preliminary non-invasive survey carried out in 2015 to the south of the church made it possible to identify the places where the remains of the former monastery walls may be located. Their possible discovery by excavation will allow for broader analyses of the material culture of this centre, in order to answer the question of the shape of the economic relations with its hinterland and long-distance contacts. Animal bone remains will be a valuable source for research on diet, the natural environment and chronology. The question of the diet of the region’s inhabitants and the origin of the vessels found here (tribute, trade) will be analysed on the basis of ceramic finds.<\/p>\n

The research area, the Altavilla Milicia region, bordering on two important cultural and economic centres of antiquity and the Middle Ages \u2013 Palermo to the west, Cefal\u00f9 to the east \u2013 is a typical peripheral area. In the Norman period there was here an Arab settlement, Ayn bi-lyen (mentioned in a document from 1169 \u2013 Cusa 1868-82, p. 37), which became the economic hinterland of the monastery of Santa Maria di Campogrosso (Oliva 2008), and whose inhabitants were probably the target of a Christianising mission. According to a working hypothesis, the remains of the Arab settlement are located near the monastery, in the area of the present-day Via Portella Daino. As part of the project, this will be verified using archaeological methods (non-invasive and invasive) and through historical-topographical research. Analysis of the movable finds from the settlement may indicate both the scope and direction of the economic and cultural contacts of the centre under study, and allow an assessment of the degree of its connection with the local \u2013 judging by references in written sources \u2013 Islamic hinterland.<\/p>\n

The results of the work on the churchyard cemetery discovered in 2015 are intended to answer the same question. Graves of individuals of tall build (monks?), possibly originating from outside Sicily, were found here. Part of a gravestone stele with a fragment of an Arabic inscription was also discovered in a secondary deposit.<\/p>\n

It may have come from an Arab cemetery destroyed by Christian graves, but it could also have been part of an Islamic grave made in a jointly used cemetery. Violence, or consensus? Which method of shaping social bonds dominated in the relations between the Islamic population and the Christians? The fragments of vessels found, produced in Arab workshops, confirm the economic ties of the monastery with its Islamic hinterland. Vessels originating from the continent were also found. Analysis of the ceramics may indicate the moment at which the replacement of the Islamic population by newcomers arriving with the Norman invaders began. New manufacturing techniques and a different range of vessels may have appeared along with this replacement. Coins are also a valuable source for the history of cultural relations. Several have been discovered so far, including coins of Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II with bilingual (Arabic-Latin) inscriptions. They testify to the fact that the Arabic alphabet was still, at that time, an effective instrument of the rulers’ policy, and was addressed to the still-settled Islamic population.<\/p>\n

Further exploration of the churchyard cemetery, and the possible location of the cemetery of the rural population, including an Arab cemetery from which the aforementioned fragment of a gravestone stele with a Kufic inscription may originate, will be of great importance. The skeletal remains obtained during the research will be subjected to analyses of the content of strontium, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen isotopes (87Sr\/86Sr, \u03b418O, \u03b413C, \u03b415N), both to establish the diet of the population studied and its origin. Genetic research will also be carried out, one of the first concerning the medieval population of Sicily in the Norman period. A large English-Italian genetic project currently under way concerns the Byzantine and Arab periods.<\/p>\n

The problem of relations between representatives of different religious and cultural groups in the medieval local communities of Sicily has a rich body of historical literature. Research on the material culture of the Norman period (et\u00e0 normanna) in Sicily, and even more so of the preceding Islamic period (et\u00e0 islamica), has developed only in recent years (Molinari 2008). It is only recently that broader studies of Sicilian ceramics of the Arab and Norman periods have begun. Every excavation that provides new ceramic sources embedded in documented stratigraphic sequences, with an absolute chronology established by physico-chemical methods, is valuable, enriching the still-scant database (Mangiaracina 2012).<\/p>\n

This makes the research in the Altavilla Milicia area, carried out by a Polish team from IAE PAN in cooperation with Sicilian researchers, all the more important. It continues a tradition of more than 50 years of cooperation between medievalist archaeologists of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences (formerly IHKM) and Italian archaeologists. At that time research was conducted mainly on the mainland. The research in Sicily continues the research directions pursued by Lech Leciejewicz. These concerned the role of the Normans in medieval Europe and the significance of the ancient heritage in shaping European culture. They also respond to the problems of contemporary Europe, as they concern the current issue of contacts between communities of different cultures and religions on a local and supra-local scale.<\/p>\n

The excavation works carried out at the Santa Maria di Campogrosso site will make it possible to establish to what extent the functioning of the monastery was linked to the nearest Arab hinterland. This will be served, among other things, by the analysis of the archaeological material discovered at the site and in the area of the settlements adjoining the monastery. As part of the project, a survey of the closest territory will be carried out in the area of the San Michele river, and to the south in the area of the Mazzamuto Cave and Monte Cane. In 2016, thanks to information from the local population, the Polish team managed to discover there the remains of graves cut into the rock, whose chronology is unknown. These may be ancient or medieval structures connected with the former Islamic population.<\/p>\n

Analysis of the constructional details of the church of San Michele should make it possible to determine the factors that led to the emergence of a building of this form. The literature on the history of Italo-Greek monasteries in Sicily is vast. A list of it, together with critical remarks, can be found in the work by Giuseppe Reina (2016). Of the churches that were associated with Basilian monasteries in Calabria and Sicily, barely a dozen or so survive to this day. Only a few of them have a plan similar to the church at Campogrosso. These include, among others, the church of S. Filipo di Fragal\u00e0, S. Nicol\u00f2 in Sciacca, Santa Maria di Terreti, San Giovanni degli Eremiti and San Giovanni Theristis. The form of the church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso shows close links with the architecture of the mainland, unlike other contemporary churches of western Sicily. If the early chronology of the complex under study is confirmed, it would be the second oldest church after the church of San Giovanni dei Lebbrosi in Palermo. Since no remains of 11th-12th century ‘Basilian’ monastic buildings are known from the territory of Sicily, as they were generally demolished or rebuilt, any discovery of the walls of the monastery of Santa Maria di Campogrosso would be of great importance for understanding the beginnings of the re-Christianisation of Sicily, which initially took place through the bringing in of Italo-Greek monks and the founding of monasteries.<\/p>\n

An important direction of activity was also research in libraries, archives and museums in Sicily concerning cultural relations on the island in the medieval period. This made it possible to compare the results of archaeological research and specialist analyses with the findings of historians, philologists and topographers (a scholarly specialisation characteristic of Italian humanities).<\/p>\n

The significance of the project. The commencement of systematic research on the Norman church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso as part of the project has a good chance of research success, given that the subject of ‘Norman’ architecture, as well as the material culture of the Norman period, gained in importance after the inclusion, in 2015, of the Arab-Norman heritage on the UNESCO World Heritage List (http:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/list\/1487).<\/p>\n

Besides fulfilling the aforementioned scientific goals, the research has also served to introduce Polish students to the culture of medieval Sicily and to promote Polish science. These are, in fact, the first regular excavations by Polish medieval archaeologists in this area. In Polish medieval studies, the subject of medieval Sicily appears rarely, gaining wider prominence only in the 21st century (Woli\u0144ska 2005; B\u00f6hm 2014). The research conducted in Altavilla Milicia by the Polish team is of great social significance and attracts considerable interest. http:\/\/www.siciliainformazioni.com\/redazione\/217057\/altavilla-milicia-conclusi-scavi-alla-chiesazza-foto. The local authorities have declared their support for organising a museum and an exhibition.<\/p>\n

Establishing the chronology of the church and the possible uncovering of the remains of the monastery, the discovery of the remains of the Arab settlement, determining the nature of the relations between Christians of both rites and the Islamic population, the scholarly study of vessel ceramics against the background of finds of this type obtained during other excavations, and the compilation of a set of stonemasons’ marks \u2013 the results of these activities will undoubtedly constitute a novum given the poor state of archaeological research on the Norman period.<\/p>\n

Research concept and plan \u2013 the general research plan, detailed research objectives, results of preliminary research<\/p>\n