History and etymology of Terrasini

In the early history of the small town of "Terrasini" there are some elusive things, which still have not been disclosed, and the first thing we do not understand is the true meaning of  “Terrasini.”  What we have above said  might seem contradictory, because almost all scholars ( with some exceptions) seem to agree with V. Amico, according to whom "[...] probably the name of Terrasini derives from the near promontory called 'Rama', that form with the opposite Cape San Vito the Gulf of ‘Castellammare’, which is the ancient ‘Sinus Aegestanus’.

Therefore, the village began to be called " Terra Sinus", in some covenants by the nearby gulf, then vulgarly "Terrasini," and now "Terrasini-Favarotta" because Terrasini merged in 1836 for the Sovereign Order with this village, which previously belonged to the municipality of Cinisi. The location of the village is to the north and north-west of its territory, in a pleasant slope, where we enjoy a wide horizon, which extends from east to west on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and from the West and North-West is occupied by a chain of almost inaccessible cliffs, and washed by the Gulf of ‘Castellammare’ [...]." (See V. Amico, “Dizionario topografico della Sicilia” ["Topographical Dictionary of Sicily”], Palermo, 1856, Vol. II: 393).

Therefore, the etymology of "Terrasini" would be "Terra Sinus" or "Inlet [of the earth]", "Gulf". This would seem also in perfect harmony with the geographical position of the town. However,  Professor Purpura clarified that [...] the popular explanation, accepted by Amico (...) about the name 'Terrasini' as "inlet of the earth" appears questionable. In fact, we observe that in this case many places should be called 'Terrasini' and this designation, however, it seems to be an 'unicum' in Italy […]” (See G. Purpura, “Il relitto di Terrasini”, in “Sicilia Archeologica”, 1974, nn. 24-25, p. 59 nota 23).

First we point out that, even before a village called "Terrasini" had stood (XVII century), this territory was called "Tirrasinum", "Terrasinis", "Tirrasinis" “Terrasini” around the thirteenth and fourteenth century, and as noted by G. Purpura, "[...] In medieval documents in 1350 and 1390, appears instead the term 'Terrasini,' as the name of a feud (...) The Abate family owned  Terrasini in 1350 (...)  Ubertino La Grua was baron of Carini and of the Terrasini manor in 1390 circa. The feud of Terrasini was also a domain of the monastery of ‘San Martino delle Scale’ [...]." (See p. 59 and note 27).

In ancient times, there probably was a place called "Cetaria", or the "place where they used to catch tuna",  "fishing net", mentioned by Cicero (106-43 BC) and Pliny (23-79 AD). During the Arab period this place was called "Sâqiât Gins" (the "bindolo" of “Cinisi” [The "Bindolo" was a water-wheel equipped with small buckets to draw water and irrigate the fields]), in the sense of "tank" and “watering place”,  probably  “a farming implement here installed to irrigate the fields”,  a "trough" (See Purpura, p. 59). The earliest documents attested without doubt that  the feud of Terrasini belonged to the Abate family. In the Index by Antonino Marrone (“Repertorio della feudalità siciliana”, Palermo, Mediterranea, 2006:  17 ff.) we read that the Abate were “milites”, or  “knights”, “barons”; around 1309 "[...] The 'dominus miles' Nicola (I) Abate married Philippa from Palermo, cousin of Matteo Sclafani … (1309) [...]."

Additionally, hereby Nicola Abate granted to the brothers Perrello "[...] dua tenimenta terrarum quorum unum dicitur casale Calidum et alterum Tirrasinum sita in territoriis Carini et Chinnisi iuxta tenimenta terrarum Chinnisi qua tenet heres domini Mattei Pipitoni [...]" (two plots of land, of which one is called "Casale calidum” [Hot Hamlet] and another “Tirrasinum” [Terrasini], located in the territory of Carini and Cinnisi, close to the properties of the heir of Matteo Pipitone).

As we see, around 1309 there was a "tenimentum" called “Tirrasinum”, where it is easy to see the current Terrasini. Furthermore, the term recours in a form very close to two other contemporary documents relating to the estates of the Abate in 1335: […]“[...] Nicolaus Abbas [Abate] miles pro Asinello, Chifalo, Carino rochis, pro terra Chiminne, 'Terrasinis', casalis Callicuda et Inichi [...]"; and still "[...] Nicolaus Abbas miles pro Asinello, Chifala, Carmorochis, Chiminne, 'Tirrasinis', casalis Cabis Cudis, Inichi [...] "(See pp. 17-19).

Still, a family member of the Abate was the baron  also of Favarotta: "[...] Riccardo Abate in 1346 is baron of 'Favarotta'  in the territory of Cefalà contracted out to Bindo di Ser Lombardo (Asp., SN, 10N, 58), and of  the castle and the estate of Cefalà in 1349 [...]” ( See A. Marrone, “Repertorio”, p. 19 nota 6). Historically Terrasini (inhabited mostly by peasant families) arose in the seventeenth century by the union with Favarotta (a fishermen village). “ ‘Favarotta’ is derived from 'fawar', Arabic for 'fountain'; it refers to a spring of cool water that gushes up from slabs of rose shale where Our Lady of Providence surveys the tuna fleet ( See F. Viviano, “Blood washes blood”, Century, 2001, p. 12).

In the early seventeenth century the two villages were separated by a valley where the Gifina river flowed, now disappeared for covering with earth, and in 1836 a Bourbon edict  united them in a single country  (with regard to the Bourbon decree, See “Collezione delle Leggi e de' decreti reali del Regno delle Due Sicilie” [" The Collection of Laws and of royal decrees of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies], Naples, 1836: 85: “[...] Ferdinand II (1810-1859) by the Grace of God  King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (...) We have  decree as follows. Article I. The village of Favarotta ceases to belong to the town of Cinisi, remaining aggregate  as far as the seashore to the town of Terrasini. The town of Cinisi preserves the entire its current territory. 2. Our Minister and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Sicily (…), and our Council of State  (…) are in charge of the execution of this decree [... ]”).

Terrasini, as we have seen,  appears as a feud belonging to the Abate family. The Abate were classified as "milites", a term which, in the feudal language of the time, was virtually synonymous with "Baron". And perhaps this remark can be usable for the "elusive"  etymology of Terrasini. At this point we put in a good word for the ancient and  traditional etymology proposed by Vito Amico, who derives Terrasini from  “Terra Sinus” or “Terrae sinus” (inlet of the earth).

The Normans did not have a specific term for the word "baron", and in the Royal Chancellery was normally used the Latin word "miles"; but in some  ancient parchments also was used the Greek term "terréres.” With regard to this word,  Professor Vera Von Falkenhausen wrote that "[...] The beneficiary of an estate could be the 'baro' [baron] or 'miles'. The word 'baro' was unknown before the arrival of the Normans in southern Italy (...) Another term with the same meaning as Baron is the Greek word ‘terrérios’, '’terréres’, or ‘at-tarariya’ [in Arabic], which is found only in some Arab and Greek parchments (...)

Probably the Greek ‘terrérios’ is not derived from the Latin 'terrarius' but from the French' terrier ',  that with the meaning of ‘seigneur terrier et justicier’ is quite common in the medieval French language (...) It is a term that is not really entered the vocabulary of Greek and Arabic in Southern Italy or Sicily, but it is a Chacellery jargon to indicate the Norman concept of ‘baron’ [...]" (See Vera Von Falkenhausen, “L'incidenza della conquista normanna sulla terminologia giuridica e agraria nell'Italia meridionale e in Sicilia”. In AA.VV., “Medioevo rurale”, edited by V. Fumagalli-G. Rossetti, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1980: 225-226).

At a given moment, V. Von Falkenhausen remarked that the "Baron" of Caltavuturo was called "Terréres tes Xòras" (p.225), or "Baron of the territory." Assuming that the chancellery terminology had been applied to the Latin expression "Terra sinus" (hence "Terrasini," according to V. Amico), would emerge in Greek "terrères tou sinou" (where "sinou" is the genitive of "sinos" = Latin "sinus" [creek, gulf], and with the loss of "tou" would appear "terréres-sinos", "terrérios-sinos" "[= Lord-Baron of the  Gulf. ] From “terrérios-sinos” it is very easy to get to the Latin “terra sinus”, and finally  to arrive at a vernacular terminology such as "terra", "tirra" and similar terms, from which 'Tirra-sinum', "Terra-sinis", "Tirra-sinis", "Terra-sini” (the actual name). In conclusion, the term "Terrasini" would indicate (perhaps!) simply the "status" of the  "Baron's land area” of the gulf, as if we said the "Bay or Valley of the Baron," "creek belonging to the Baron."

The double check of the fact that things could have been so is the legal formula in the document quoted above, where "Nicolaus Abbas" was defined as "miles pro Asinello, Chifala, Carmorochis ...", or “Baron of (“pro”= of) Asinello, (...)". If the formula had been in Greek, it would have been like this: “Nicolaus Abbas 'terréres tou' Asinello, Chifala ...", which means “Baron of Asinello, Chifala ...".

Moving from theory to an indisputable historical fact,  the habit of translating "terrérion" with "Baron" or of translating some chancellery expressions from Greek into Latin, is also attested "in a Greek privilege of Roger I (1031-1101) in favor of the church of Messina ... [where] the Greek expression “iereis ton emon ‘terrerion’” is translated into Latin with ‘sacerdotes Meorum Baronum’” [The priests of my Barons ] (See Falkenhausen, p. 225 note 15). The Arabs translated "terréres" with “at-tarariya”. The name of "Terrasini" constitutes an "unicum" (Purpura, p. 59), and presumably this was due to the fact that the term "terréres," as noted Professor Von Falkenhausen, was used only in a few  Norman and Arab parchments, that it had a very limited circulation.

The assumption proposed above is also corroborated by the fact that, historically, the whole area of Terrasini belonged to the most powerful baronies  strongly linked to the Normans; for example, the area of Carini, in which were also included Favarotta and Terrasini, under the dominion of the Normans was owned by Rodolfo Bonello, Baron of Apulia. As  Michele Amari wrote, “the Bonello were the comrades-in-arms of Roger I, and they do not seem neither French, nor Lombards and nor Greek, but they would appear instead of Italic Sicilian family” ( See M. Amari, “Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia”, Firenze, Le Monnier, 1868, Vol. III: 233) . Then Terrasini was ruled by the "milites" Abbate since 1282, with Palmerio Abate, Baron of Carini and the island of Favignana, who organized the Sicilian rebellion against  Charles of Anjou, in 1282 with the "Sicilian Vespers" (See F.M. Emanuele e Gaetani, “Appendice Alla Sicilia Nobile” , 1775, Vol. I: 60).

At the end of the fourteenth century Ubertino La Grua (died 1408) had the 'investiture of the barony of Carini in 1397, then the La Grua in 1593 also sold the manor of Terrasini (See F. Maurici, "Illi de domo et familia Abbatellis," Officina di studi medievali, 1985: 19 footnote 63). Fazio di Fazio and his wife Violante gave the fiefdom of Cinisi, which then bordered on the feud of Terrasini and that expanded from Carini  as far as the sea to the Gregorian Monastery of "San Martino delle Scale." ( See G. Frangipani, “Storia del convento di San Martino presso Palermo”, 1905: 42). So the feud was still held by the family of La Grua (XVI century), who also built the church in the village of Terrasini. Afterwards the feud of Terrasini passed to Donato Gazzara (1664). After the abolition of feudalism (1812), Terrasini had a boost thanks to wine-related activities in the name of Henri d'Orleans Duc d'Aumale (1822-1897).

In 1878 he owned a winery and olive oil with warehouses in Terrasini (See O. Cancila, “Storia dell'industria in Sicilia”, Bari, Laterza, 1995: 160). In fact,  Duke of Aumale bought the former fiefdom 'Zucco' in 1853, and he began to vinify in 1860. At his factory in Terrasini he had thousands of barrels where he aged the white and red old wine called "Zucco".

In modern times Terrasini was basically devoted to the tuna fishing and agriculture; these activities are still very important in Terrasini, but we must add to them  tourism, which in recent years has brought Terrasini to be a remarkable seaside resort, thanks also to the cultural heritage of the town.  In fact, in the late 1960s an important wreck of the first century AD with a cargo of Spanish amphorae was discovered in Terrasini, and  part of the finds are now preserved in the  “Antiquarium”, built for this purpose.