There is a small town in Sicily, Italy, shaped like a "big fonterate", called Centuripe. The town also became popular because of this particular shape.
"Human" type ✦
The first to discover the village was Pio Andrea Peri, a 32-year-old Italian photographer who spotted the particular humanoid while observing the village on Google satellite maps, and then flew over the town with a drone to take a set of photos.
Pio says that in post-production, he manually stacked about 18 photographs and spent two hours to bring out the layout of the town in its entirety through time-lapse photography (first image of the article).
Four longer and shorter groups of dwellings are built in five different directions along the mountain, overlooking a jet-like shape, such as a person's "limbs" and "head".
When Pio uploaded the photo to the Internet, it triggered a heated discussion among netizens, and some netizens even felt that the outline of the town resembled Da Vinci's "Vitruvius Man".
Of course, there are also voices of doubt, some netizens feel unreal, suspect that the photographer deliberately tampered with the photos for Bo's attention, but the photos on the official website of the Chinturipe government confirm that all this is true.
And they zoomed in on Google Maps themselves and found that the town really looked like Pio had photographed.
History of the town ✦
Located on a hill in the province of Enna in eastern Sicily, Italy, close to the famous Mount Etna, The town is very old, dating back at least to the 5th century BC.
The town has many prehistoric ruins and some Neolithic remains at low altitudes.
Later Hellenized, the town entered the Syracuse civilization from the fourth century BC, and the town flourished in Hellenistic and Roman times, leaving many important ruins.
The fate of the town followed closely behind the fate of the Roman Empire. It was conquered by the Muslims in 1061 AD, and the subsequent Norman conquest brought a brief period of peace to the town, and the city prospered again.
In 1260, Chinturipe was again captured by the Angevins, destroying everything and not being rebuilt until 1548.
Once a defensive stronghold, in the 16th century, the town was famous for its picturesque alleyways, narrow laneways and winding stone steps that extend into the valley, naturally separated by layers of staggered row houses, such as the tightly organized maze of stonehenges.
"Sicilian balcony"✦
The town's observation deck is located at the top of the hill and offers a view of the famous Mount Etna in the distance. Due to its special location, it is a great place to overlook the idyllic scenery of Sicily, so the Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi called it the "Balcony of Sicily".
At the top of the hill sits a church, Chiesa del Calvario, overlooking the entire valley, offering panoramic views.
Today's town is no longer glorious, the permanent residents are only about 5,000 people, and with the passage of time and various wars, the town has lost a part of its historical heritage, but still retains some monuments, churches and castles, all telling the story of the town in time.
Let's start with the 17th-century Chiesa Madre Immacolata Concezione, a cathedral with a pink-white façade. Over the centuries, the church has undergone several renovations.
The interior is richly decorated with stucco, twisted columns and floral elements. The nave on each side contains a series of marble altarpieces and paintings.
The Church of Pergatoria (Chiesa del Purgatorio) was also built in the 17th century for exhibitions and cultural events.
Near the church there is an interesting small archaeological museum (Museo Archeologico Regionale di Centuripe), which is housed in a large building from the 1950s and is free to visit.
The museum displays some interesting artifacts from the Roman and other different eras, fine ceramics from the Greek period, and even prehistoric pottery.
In the town, there is an ancient Castello di Corradino castle, which is actually the remains of a large Roman mausoleum.
The city also has an archaeological site – a Greek center with Roman walls and Roman cisterns. Near the edge of the town are the remains of the Roman baths of Sorivá.