The ninth edition of Nicosia’s Casazza was staged on Friday 27, Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 March 2026, starting at 4pm each day: three evenings in which the historic centre once again became the open-air stage of the itinerant sacred play, with around four hundred performers — actors, extras and crew.
The three scenes
The route opened in piazza Valguarnera, where the Briciole d’Arte company staged Caiaphas’ trial: a small period market at the entrance to the square framed the Sanhedrin’s judgement, from Judas’ thirty pieces of silver to Peter’s denial. The second scene, Pilate’s judgement and the flagellation, was entrusted to the Filodrammatica Girasole on the stairway leading up to the Capuchin friary. The closing scene, in the Friars’ garden, was the Crucifixion by the Amattori company. The edition’s farewell was a banner carrying a single word: “Pace” — peace.
At the opening, in the courtyard of the largo Peculio school, were mayor Luigi Bonelli, the Sicilian regional councillor for Energy Francesco Colianni and the mayor of Piazza Armerina, Nino Cammarata.
A handover at the top
The edition had been presented on Sunday 1 March in the council chamber of the town hall, where Giovanni D’Urso — the man behind the 2016 revival, after more than a century and a half of silence — handed the presidency of the “La Casazza di Nicosia” association coordination over to Fernando D’Amico.
The town machine
For the three days the municipality adopted three measures: classes suspended at the largo Peculio school from the afternoon of the 27th (mayoral order no. 18), the Saturday market of the 28th moved to viale Itria (no. 17), and a traffic plan in force from 18 to 30 March, with restrictions between piazza Valguarnera, via Casale and via San Felice (executive order no. 22).
One hundred photographs
The season closed on Sunday 14 June, again in the council chamber, with the awards ceremony of the 2026 “La Casazza di Nicosia” photo contest: the town hall’s entrance hall hosted an exhibition of around one hundred shots by some twenty photographers. The jury — chaired by Adriano La Blunda, with Sergio Leonardi, Pina Sutera, Claudia Emanuele and Maurizio Cannizzo — awarded Salvatore Giangrasso (first place), Salvatore Di Pietro (second) and Donello Scarpinato (third); the critics’ prize went to Cristina Rao. Institutional greetings came from mayor Anna Maria Gemmellaro and deputy mayor Nando Zappia.
What the Casazza is — the play Giuseppe Pitrè called “the most solemn, the most resounding” in the whole island (Spettacoli e feste popolari siciliane, 1881) — is told on the event page.
Sources
The original reports are by Telenicosia (in Italian): the 1 March presentation, the eve of the event, the municipal plan, the account of the three evenings and the photo-contest awards.