Sperlinga

Sperlinga is a comune in the province of Enna, in the central part of Sicily. Sperlinga is about above sea level. It is on a hill on the southern slopes of the Nebrodi mountains, about north of Enna. It has a number of dwellings. The village has a large medieval castle, dating from Norman times.
In 2014 the population was 819 people. The main activity in the area is farming.
History.
The village is first mentioned (as "Sperlingua") in a document belonging to the Norman Count Roger from 1082. The castle is first mentioned in 1113.
It is believed that Sperlinga did not take part in the Sicilian Vespers, the bloody uprising against the Angevin French rulers of Sicily in 1282. The village may have offered them protection. There was an inscription over a door in the castle which read , meaning "what pleased the Sicilians, only Sperlinga denied".
From about 1360 Sperlinga was ruled by the Ventimiglia family. In 1597 it was sold for 30,834 ounces of gold to Giovanni Natoli. Natoli was granted a "licentia populandi" or "licence to populate" by the king of Sicily, Philip II of Spain, and was made Prince of Sperlinga in 1627. His son Francesco sold Sperlinga in 1656 to Giovanni Stefano Oneto, but kept the princely title. Oneto was made Duke of Sperlinga in 1666 by Charles II of Spain.
During the Allied invasion of Sicily, in the Second World War, Allied forces moved past Sperlinga to envelop Nicosia, a few kilometres to the south. They met strong resistance. After a show of force by American tanks, the Axis forces withdrew from Sperlinga and Nicosia during the night of 27 July 1943. Units of the American 16th Infantry Regiment entered Sperlinga the next morning.