The commune od Buscemi is situated in the province of Siracusa, in the south of Sicily and it has about 1.200 inhabitants; the nearly communes are Buccheri, Cassaro, Ferla e Palazzolo Acreide in the province of Siracura, Giarratana and Modica in the province of Ragusa.
Just one hundred or one hundred and fifty years ago - a mere puff in the infinity of time - in the Sicilian countryside activities were widespread, and utensils were used, that seem today to belong to prehistory: farmers, housewives and artisans conducted a wretched and hard-working life, unaware of being the last exponents of a world that a few decades later was to disappear. And even the memory of it would have been lost, if some anthropology lovers full of good will had not acted to save customs and objects from oblivion.
One of the most interesting country life museums in Sicily is at Buscemi. Actually, it would be more correct to say 'it is' Buscemi: the whole historic area of this small village perching on a hillock dominating the valley of the Anapo has been turned into a country life museum. An interesting itinerary connects together the casa ro jurnataru (agricultural labourer's house) and the casa ro massaru (farmer's house); the putie (shops) ro scarparu (of the cobbler) and of the rappuntapiatti (the artisan that mended dishes and saucepans), ro falignami (of the carpenter) and ro firraru (of the blacksmith). In each place the furnishings, furniture and utensils characteristic of the different jobs are set out.
The itinerary also includes u parmientu (the grape press), where among other things you can see a Greek-style press, and u trappitu (the crusher), in a very big space created by enlarging an old church (or perhaps a mosque) in the rocks. This place takes us back to the remotest history of Buscemi, in the Byzantine epoch: in that period there developed a first troglodytic settlement, which then went into Arab hands. The new seignior of Sicily called it Qal'at Abi Samah, the name from which, through successive corruptions, there comes the present-day place name. If the first true historical notices date from the Middle Ages, the oldest monumental traces of the past of Buscemi date from much later: from the eighteenth century, that is say from the period after the 1693 earthquake, there date the churches that embellish the village, among which there stand out the main church and the Sant'Antonino church.
Also to be seen is the sanctuary of the Madonna of the Wood, the patron saint of the village, portrayed in a sixteenth-century fresco which miraculously escaped the destruction of the earthquake mentioned. The Virgin is celebrated on the last Sunday in August, with a solemn popular feast that is the pair to the no less solemn feast in May in honour of Crucified Christ, the oldest religious celebration at Buscemi.
The commune od Buscemi is situated in the province of Siracusa, in the south of Sicily and it has about 1.200 inhabitants; the nearly communes are Buccheri, Cassaro, Ferla e Palazzolo Acreide in the province of Siracura, Giarratana and Modica in the province of Ragusa.
