The origin of Bisacquino is still uncertain. Someone thinks it was built by such people as the Greek, the Sicans, the Carthaginians , the Romans. Their presence is testified by some archeological finds on Mount Triona overhanging Bisacquino. Others think the town owes its origin to the Arabs as the today urban structure witnesses. It is supposed the name "Bisacquino", derives from a Latin word " bis-aqua" ( plenty of water, watery ) or from an Arabian word " Buseckuin " (father of the innocent or very watery ). However either the term comes from Latin or from Arabic both the etymologies attest the abundance of water in the place. Here a group of Arabs settled in 840 A.D. and founded a hamlet, just like the one built a little later, not far from Bisacquino, and called " Bat.lari ". At that time the Arabs had already conquered Sicily and had divided it in three parts or "valleys". Buseckuin was a part of the valley called Mazzara. In 1183 The Normans drove the Arabs out of Sicily and Buseckuin changed its name in Busechinum. It became a domain of the Archbishop of Monreale thanks to the Norman king Guglielmo il Buono. In the following centuries the town shared the historical events of Sicily concerning the Swabian, Angevin and Aragonian dominations; in 1282 it took part in the Sicilian rebellion against the Angevin which was called "Vespri Siciliani". The rule of the Archbishop of Monreale lasted about 600 years; it was important for the town because it got benefits and privileges and enjoyed a period of great prosperity; its population increased and a lot of noble families started living there: the Florenas, the Almericis, the La Placas, the Bonas ; their memory still survive in the names of some town streets. In the XVI century, Bisacquino became such an important town that it was called " Nobilis Universitas " in the documents of that age. Its people were famous for their laboriouness and religiousness, the town was well admministrated by a governor, four judges and a treasurer; different religious orders settled there and a lot of churches started to be built, one of them was the Sanctuary of Madonna del Balzo (1664). At the beginning of the XVIII century sixteen churches had been built and they were the heart of social and religious life in the town quarters. In the following years Bisacquino shared the historical events of Sicily once more: in 1812 it was under the rule of Bourbonists like the whole island; it changed its coat of arms from an eight pointed star to an eagle with a shield where a fountain springing water was carven; it gave its tribute to the unification of Italy (1861) when a group of young people decided to join Garibaldi's army following Colonel Orsini who went to Bisacquino wanting to reach Marsala (1860). In 1866 the new Italian state confiscated the Church's estates; as a consequence some monasteries changed their role or were bought by well off private citizens who became rich landowners and got the title of "baron". Farmers couldn't get that chance because they were poor, so they became the landowners' badly paid workers, oppressed by a heavy taxation. Poor people's hope to better their life conditions thanks to the country unification was frustrated.. Discontent spread through them; they organized themselves into associations called "Fasci" and occupied their employers' lands for protest. In Bisacquino the leaders of those associations were Vito Cascioferro and Nunzio Giaimo. The rebellion was soon put down and poor people's hopes were once more frustrated to such a point that at the beginning of the century a lot of families in Bisacquino, like in other Sicilian towns, emigrated to the U.S.A to try a bit of luck and fulfill their " American dream" One of those families was Frank Capra's, the well known Italo-American film director. Bisacquino suffered also hard times during the two World Wars paying its own tribute to the war with human lives. The end of the second World War and the birth of the new republic flared up again people's hope to change their economic and social condition, but the fulfillment of that hope was not possible also for the perverse interlacement between Mafia and politics. Once more a lot of people emigrated to the North of Italy and to other European countries to search for a better life. Their hope was to come back as soon as possible but time has proved false that promise. The inhabitants of Bisacquino, ten thousand at the beginning of the century, are only five thousand now.
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relics of " Bat.lari " hamlet not far from Bisacquino
old coat of arm s
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