centro storico, di crinale, montano, Acri, Aciria (denominazione storica), Aciris (denominazione storica)

To read Acri’s old town is to read its history in stone. The urban fabric reveals two distinct building phases. The first is the defensive core, neighbourhoods like Padìa and Castello, once enclosed by walls that wrapped around the entire citadel, including the mother church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The original castle was trapezoidal, with three towers at the highest point and a fourth lower down, guarding the drawbridge. This spontaneous, hillside-adapted layout mixes modest dwellings with a few gentry houses.

The second nucleus, Casalicchio, is an expansion downhill, beyond the walls, towards the Calamo stream. It grew between the 17th and 18th centuries, spurred by various monastic orders. Here, the plan is more linear, stretched along the main routes. Outside the walls, too, lay the Jewish ghetto, the Judeca, on the left bank of the Calamo. Acri’s origins are unclear, excavations have found substantial settlement on the Colle Dogna slopes, but the town’s layered structure speaks eloquently for itself.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.