La città di Francesco Morso: fondazione e cantiere urbano (1642-1742)

Located in the heart of the Belice Valley, in a fertile area made next to the river that gave its name to the city, Poggioreale antica is located along the southern slope of Mount Elimo, and owns a layout based on strict orthogonality, that is shared among the numerous Sicilian “new towns” of modern age. Founded in 1642 by Francesco Morso, then damaged by the 1968 earthquake and immediately abandoned by its inhabitants, the city has been the subject of numerous studies, most of which have investigated the complex events related firstly to the management of the emergency, and secondly to the establishment of the new centre a few kilometres away (Poggioreale nuova). However, research on the birth and urban development of the ancient site is completely lacking: indeed, available sources are mainly limited to the autopsy investigations of the buildings – particularly on residential blocks, whose typological, material and construction components have been highlighted – and on available historical cartography (Milazzo 2008, Scibilia 2008, Finocchiaro 2025). These data are to be aggregated with new documentary acquisitions, that have been obtained from research studies conducted at the Archivio di Stato di Trapani, and are focused on clarifying the methods of planting and building peasant houses. The latter ones are considered the minimum units of progressive structuring of the city, and the main living for the inhabitants who came to live in Poggioreale in the 17th century. Since the oldest documents date back to 1661, it has been possible to shed new light on the early days of the city, piecing together a previously unknown picture of its urban history and the life of a community that was dramatically wiped out by the earthquake.