Sferracavallo is an ancient fishing village of the city of Palermo. Its name, so peculiar (sferra: lose shoes/ cavallo: horse), originates from the conditions of the road leading once to the village, which was so rough that made the carriages’ horses lose their shoes. The village has a very ancient story, dating back to the prehistoric age. The first inhabitants were tribes of hunters and pickers, as testified by Paleolithic remains found during archeological excavations in some caves (the Cave of the Hanged Man, Conza and Pecoraro’s Caves). In the 15th century a group of fishermen coming from Palermo and Isola delle Femmine established in the bay and created the first community around a “tonnara” (tuna nets) and a little church. At the beginning their economy was exclusively based on fishing, afterwards on agriculture too (vineyards, myrtle and sumac, used for tanning). In this period, because of pirates’ attacks, two watchtowers were built near the village. Remains of the eldest of them are still visible behind the Bellevue Hotel, at Punta Matese, the other one has been destroyed during the building of Palermo-Punta Raisi motorway. Between 1600 and 1700, the old road leading to the village was definitely fixed and it became so smooth that ladies and noblemen from Palermo began to choose Sferracavallo as their favourite destination for horse-drawn carriage rides. Villa Maggiore Amari, a country residence which became the heart of a wide fief, dates back to this period. Afterwards, at the end of nineteenth century and the first decades of 1900, aristocrats built the beautiful art nouveau mansions along the sea shore, that we still can admire. The ancient fishing village turned gradually into the holiday resort of Palermo’s aristocracy and headed for its moment of highest splendour. From then on Sferracavallo has received a growing impulse towards urban development and the tourist vocation which is today its trademark.