EnnaNicosia.
Here, or at Troina (q.v.), Cretans coming with Minos are said to have founded Engyum. The modem town developed around the castle in the Byzantine period and further expanded under the Normans, who increased the population with Lombard and Piedmontese settlers; this immigration continued until the 13th c. and the local people still speak a dialect that is rich in Gallo-ltalic forms, as in some other parts of Sicily. A city of the royal domain from the times of William II, Nicosia played an important strategic role in the region, favoured by its position halfway between Palermo and Messina. It often gave hospitality to kings and emperors, and Charles V's visit on his retum from Tunis in 1535 has remained famous.

There are numerous churches with works of some importance: the Chiesa del Carmine, in via Li Volsi, boasts an Annunciation by Antonello Gagini; SanBenedetto (14th c.), in the road of the same name; and San Biagio, in Via Randazzo, with precious stuccos, paintings by Giuseppe Velasquez, various wooden sculptures, a l5th c. panel and a triptych by Antonello Gagini. But the most outstanding of these and other churches at Nicosia is the Cattedra1e di San Nicola, with its imposing ogival l5th c. portal. Built in the l4th c. on the site of a pre-existing Norman structure, it has frequently been altered. Even older is the l3th c. campanile, which was restructured in the l4th c. Inside the Cathedral we can see the Gaginesque pulpit and font, a wooden crucifix by Fra' Umile da Petralìa, the carved choir (1622), paintings by Novelli, and the Martyrdom of St Bartholomew by Jusepe de Ribera. The l8th c. Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore is also of great artistic value. This contains a l6th c. holy water stoup, the throne of Charles V, a fine marble polyptych by Antonello Gagini and a delicate Madonna ofthe Gagini school. The mediaeval castle, or rather what remains of it, is in the upper part of the town.