Place of interest
Mangiapane Cave Museum and Living Nativity
Inhabited by humans since the Upper Palaeolithic, it is one of the most important caves in the Trapani area. Located in the Scurati district, at an altitude of about 60 metres above sea level, about 70 metres high and 50 deep, it houses inside a small and delightful rural settlement, inhabited until the early…
Custonaci
The place
Inhabited by humans since the Upper Palaeolithic, it is one of the most important caves in the Trapani area. Located in the Scurati district, at an altitude of about 60 metres above sea level, about 70 metres high and 50 deep, it houses inside a small and delightful rural settlement, inhabited until the early 1950s by the very Mangiapane family from which it takes its name.
The cave, besides its extraordinary charm, has always been the object of study and research: Dalla Rosa in 1870, Vaufrey in 1925, and more recently Sebastiano Tusa, found numerous prehistoric finds (animal teeth and bones, worked flints, obsidian…) kept in many Italian and foreign museums.
In recent years the cave has been the natural home of the Living Nativity (at Christmas time) and the Living Museum (in summer), two well-attended and evocative events in which old craftsmen and farmers bring back to life ancient customs and trades.
