Filippo Bentivegna's 'Castello Incantato' in Sicily Gains Museum and Heritage Protection

Filippo Bentivegna (1888–1967), a Sicilian outsider artist from Sciacca, created a sprawling outdoor environment known as the 'Castello Incantato' (Enchanted Castle) in the countryside near Sciacca, Sicily. After a traumatic experience in America in 1913, he returned to his homeland, bought a plot of land, and spent decades carving hundreds of anthropomorphic stone heads from the rock, populating his solitary refuge. His works were collected by Jean Dubuffet for his Art Brut collection, now in Lausanne. Since February 2015, the site has been protected by the Soprintendenza of Agrigento. A museum dedicated to Bentivegna opened three years ago at the foot of the castle, curated by art historian Rita Ferlisi of the Soprintendenza. The article suggests that Sciacca could be the first stop on a tour of outsider art sites, potentially including Giovanni Cammarata's site in Messina, championed by sociologist Pier Paolo Zampieri, and Ezechiele Leandro's Santuario della Pazienza in Puglia, awaiting restoration.