Santa Cristina Gela is one of Sicily's Albanian-speaking communities, located just four kilometers from Piana degli Albanesi, with which it shares not only territorial continuity but also the same language and traditional women's customs.

The village was founded in the 17th century by farmers from Piana degli Albanesi who settled permanently in these territories to work the fields and who later obtained the concession on an emphyteusis.

Originally, the name of the village was simply Santa Cristina, and only in the 19th century was Gela added when the Naselli family, Dukes of Gela, acquired it on an emphyteusis in 1747 and obtained the licentia populandi, a royal concession in the Kingdom of Sicily that authorized feudal lords and barons to found new settlements or repopulate rural fiefdoms.

 

In Santa Cristina Gela, you can visit by appointment the museum located in Palazzo Musacchia and the recently restored church of Santa Cristina, which houses a valuable sculpture depicting Saint Joseph, the patron saint to whom the population is particularly devoted. The celebrations in honor of Saint Joseph involve the Veneranda Confraternita di San Giuseppe, founded in 1796, one of the oldest confraternities in the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi.

 

Santa Cristina Gela is a charming village with a rural economy and numerous sheep and cattle farms.

 

Today, this village is well-known and appreciated for its local products, particularly its cannoli. Santa Cristina Gela is also very popular with visitors traveling along the Magna Via Francigena, which begins in this small village.