Santa Ninfa

Santa Ninfa
Comune
Comune di Santa Ninfa
250px
Santa Ninfa Location of Santa Ninfa in Italy
Coordinates:
Country	Italy
Region	Sicily
Province / Metropolitan city	Trapani (TP)
Government
• Mayor	Giuseppe Lombardino (since May 27, 2003)
Area
• Total	63 km2 (24 sq mi)
Elevation	464 m (1,522 ft)
Population (December 31, 2004)
• Total	5,074
• Density	81/km2 (210/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Santaninfensi
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	91029
Dialing code	0924
Website	Official website

Santa Ninfa is a town and comune in South-Western Sicily, Italy, administratively part of the province of Trapani. It has 5,074 inhabitants as of 2004.

History

Santa Ninfa was founded in 1605 by Luigi Arias Giardina that with approval of King Philip III, began to urbanize the country with roads and civil and religious buildings .

The town was built with concentric roads which converge in the central square (Liberty Square). Over the years, buildings were built such as the Baronial Palace (Palazzo Baronale), the Hospital, the Church of St. Ursula, St. Anne's Church and the Convent of the Third Order of St. Francis, the Mother Church (Chiesa Madre which is the Cathedral of the country) and the prisons.

In 1615, after the founding of the Arcipretura of Santa Ninfa, the country was declared a baronial fief. From that moment on, and in the following centuries, the estate passed from family to family, enriching the country with more and more new buildings.

Even Santa Ninfa knew the terrible scourge of emigration, since the early twentieth century, in which many inhabitants of the land left the country for the United States of America, Canada and Venezuela, looking for work.

Belice Earthquake

In the 15th of January 1968 the country of Santa Ninfa was hit by the disastrous earthquake of Belice. The quake was of the 9th grade of the Mercalli's Intensity Scale, which caused collapses in the entire country.