Vivi Nicosia — events, places and experiences in Nicosia, Sicily

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Cammino di San Giacomo (Saint James's Way)

10-15 October 2026 · Cammino di San Giacomo, Sicily

Ticketed

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Poster of Estate Nicosiana 2026, 29 July to 11 October, with the lit square and the bell towers of Nicosia

Estate Nicosiana 2026 — Nicosia's Summer Programme

29 July - 11 October 2026 · Piazze di Nicosia e Villadoro

Free entry

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Frutta di Martorana, traditional marzipan sweets for Nicosia's All Souls' feast

All Souls' Day — Traditional sweets and dried fruit

2 NOV · Municipal cemetery + homes and bakeries of the historic centre

Free entry

March 2026 Flagship event

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All events

The Vivi Nicosia promise

A multimedia, interactive book to leaf through. About Nicosia, inside and around it.

Vivi Nicosia is the independent editorial platform of the territory. It puts residents and visitors in dialogue around the heritage, events, people and places that make the town — with no commercial intermediaries. For those who live Nicosia every day and for those discovering it for the first time.

Heritage told through photos, words and the sources it comes from.
Events and news written from public sources: posters, press releases, local papers.
Bilingual Italian + English, accessible, mobile-first.

What has happened in Nicosia

Memorable moments

Six glimpses from the recent archive: past editions of Casazza, White Night and Beer Festival, heritage assets, territory cuisine. Browse these tiles and you'll see where Nicosia is going.

Casazza of Nicosia, scene in Piazza Garibaldi

The Casazza, back on the streets

In 1851 nearly 1,200 costumed figures walked it through the town from morning to late night, Pitrè records. Revived in 2016, it reached its ninth edition on 27–29 March 2026.

Nicosia's historic centre toward the Castle — night atmosphere

August 2026 Live music

A whole old town awake

8 August 2026: music, street performers and fire artists from Piazza Garibaldi to Santa Maria di Gesù, organised by the Town of Nicosia.

Centuries Urban heritage

The Barons' palaces

A historic centre layered between the Middle Ages, the 17th and the 19th century. By tradition, the "town of the 24 Barons" is named after the noble families who lived here in the 18th century.

Photo: Giangrasso, CC BY-SA 4.0

July 2025 Food & wine

Three nights of beer and live music

The second Beer Fest at the former Educatorio car park, organised by the Audentes cultural association: Bavarian and local craft beer, street food, concerts and DJ sets.

Tradition Territory cuisine

Cannoli, Pizziddati, Nocattoli

Nicosia's traditional sweets: the cannolo with sheep's-milk ricotta, and the nocattolo, almond paste and cinnamon, the town's first De.Co. product (2015).

Photo: Davide Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0

View of Monte Altesina, above Villadoro hamlet (Nicosia)

796 m a.s.l. Landscape

Villadoro and Monte Altesina

The hamlet and, above it, the Monte Altesina nature reserve (1,192 m): from the top, on clear days, Etna and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Photo: Davide Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0

Places that explain Nicosia

Places

A heritage above the average for an inland town. From the 15th-century Cathedral to the Byzantine-Norman Castle, from rock dwellings to a Slow Food brewery.

Interior nave of the Cathedral of San Nicolò, Nicosia, looking toward the main altar

Religious

Religious heritage

Cathedral of San Nicolò

The Cathedral of the Barons holds a 15th-century wooden roof that Federico Zeri called «an extraordinary, unique monument». Hidden above the early-19th-century barrel vault is one of Sicily's rarest survivals.

Co-cathedral of the Barons

Façade of the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Nicosia

Religious

Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore

Nicosia's mother church, of Norman origin and rebuilt after the 1757 landslide: a minor basilica with a sculpted Baroque portal and Gagini's monumental marble altarpiece. Co-protagonist of the town's sacred heritage.

Heritage

Archaeology

Rock dwellings of Nicosia

Prehistoric troglodyte dwellings carved into the rock beneath the Castle spur. Candidates for the FAI 'Luoghi del Cuore' as a rare example of cave habitation in inland Sicily.

Historical & archaeological heritage

The stone bridge of the Castle of Nicosia linking the twin rocky peaks; on the left summit the Norman tower ruin, with the inland Sicilian panorama in the background

Heritage

Castle of Nicosia

A double-peaked rocky spur overlooking the historic centre. Norman remains, Byzantine foundations and — carved into the rock — prehistoric dwellings nominated as one of Italy's FAI Heart Places.

View of Nicosia's historic centre with the baronial palaces toward the Castle

Landscape

Civil heritage

The Palaces of the 24 Barons

The great baronial families of the «town of the 24 barons» wrote the façades of Nicosia's historic centre between the 17th and 19th centuries. A walk among the palaces and a gallery of all documented residences.

Façade of the birthplace of Saint Felix in Via Scuole Vecchie, Nicosia

Landscape

Patron saint of Nicosia

Birthplace of Saint Felix of Nicosia

The house where on 5 November 1715 Filippo Giacomo Amoruso was born, who later became the Capuchin friar Felix. Canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, he is regarded as the patron saint of Nicosia. Address: Via Scuole Vecchie 22.