Santuario Fortezza

Center of San Vito Lo Capo, the Sanctuary was an ancient fortress that, over the centuries, has suffered numerous construction. The first construction dates back to the fourteenth century: small chapel dedicated to St. Vito Martyr, village's patron. According to tradition, the young Vito, to escape Dioclezian persecution (303-304), he escaped from Mazara del Vallo and landed on Feudo of Punta, in the territory of Erice Mount, where he began to preach among the people. To accommodate the many faithful who came in pilgrimage, the original building, the late fifteenth century, went turning into a fortress-accommodation. The Sanctuary was once the center of a great devotion and, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, began to develop around the first settlement of the town.