The Patron
San Gerlando
San Gerlando di Agrigento is the listed patron, celebrated on 25 February. Local tradition includes a major July devotion to San Calogero.
— Castellesi
CASTELLESI COMUNE
Agrigento,
Sicilia
A Greek city whose family records still remember the name Girgenti.
Agrigento looks down from its ridge over the Valley of the Temples , the greatest surviving group of Greek temples anywhere, and beyond them to the African sea.
The city was called Girgenti until 1927. And the State Archive has turned that into a filing rule you can use: it labels a fond Girgenti or Agrigento according to whether its closing date falls before or after 1927 .
The Name
Girgenti
Until 1927, the city and province were called Girgenti. Civil registers, military records and emigrant documents from the principal migration period therefore use a name that no longer appears on today's provincial map.
The Landmark
Cattedrale di San Gerlando
The Cattedrale di San Gerlando anchors the old town on the ridge. For family research, parish identity within Girgenti or another provincial comune is more useful than treating the entire modern province as one search area.
Did you know?
BEFORE 1927 SEARCH GIRGENTI
The archive follows the old name
The Archivio di Stato itself files fonds as Girgenti or Agrigento according to whether they close before or after 1927. Its civil-status fond for 1820–1865 is therefore catalogued under Girgenti, and some provincial material also sits at Sciacca or Palermo.
LA PARLATA
How they speak
Italian is standard. Sicilian is widely represented in local speech and culture.
Search the old name first
Akragas was founded around 580 BC and became one of the wealthiest cities of the Greek world — Pindar called it the most beautiful city of mortals. The temples along its southern ridge were built in the fifth century BC, and the Temple of Concordia survives almost intact because it was converted into a church.
Rome took it as Agrigentum , the Arabs as Kerkent , and the Normans made the mangled form Girgenti , which stuck for eight centuries. The medieval and modern town withdrew uphill from the ancient site to the defensible ridge where it still stands.
Under the Bourbons this was the Valle di Girgenti , one of seven Sicilian provinces from 1817, with districts at Girgenti, Bivona and Sciacca . The valle had an odd interruption: it was abolished by decree in June 1828 and reconstituted that December .
The nineteenth century brought sulphur . The Agrigentino held some of the richest deposits in Sicily, and the mines shaped the province as they did Caltanissetta — with the same brutal conditions and the same carusi . When the industry collapsed, the province emptied.
In 1927 the city and province were renamed Agrigento , reaching back past Girgenti to the Roman form of the ancient name.
Agrigento gave Italy Luigi Pirandello , born here in 1867.
Postcards from Agrigento
Wear Agrigento
Carry your heritage with pride. Timeless designs inspired by the heart of Agrigento.
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Where this
belongs
belongs
PROVINCIA DI AGRIGENTO
Discover the beauty, culture and traditions of Agrigento and its remarkable comuni.
EXPLORE AGRIGENTO →REGIONE SICILIA
From the mountains to the sea, Sicilia is a region of history, flavor and soul.
EXPLORE SICILIA →From the passenger index
At least 133 people who gave Agrigento as their home are recorded by name among Italian arrivals in the United States — each with the ship they sailed on and the day they landed.
A floor, not a total. The index covers arrivals through 1912, holds nothing between May 1907 and December 1911, and many passengers were written down with no home town at all. Where a name is there, it is there with its record.
Have Orso look for your family →Ready to visit
Temples below, town above
Getting there
The nearest major airport is Palermo, Catania, Trapani, or Comiso Airport, depending on the destination.
Agrigento is two things at once. The Valley of the Temples below the town is among the most impressive archaeological sites in the Mediterranean and draws visitors from everywhere. The modern town on the ridge above is ordinary, workaday and almost ignored — and it is where an Agrigentino family actually lived.
For a descendant, go up as well as down. The old streets around the cathedral, the parish churches, and the view out over the temples to the sea are the town your family knew.
The province is large and worth time: Sciacca on the coast with its thermal baths and fishing fleet, Bivona and the interior, the sulphur country, and Porto Empedocle below the city.
What to see
The Valley of the Temples — Concordia, Juno, Heracles, and the regional archaeological museum.
The old town on the ridge — the cathedral, Santo Spirito, and the streets where the modern city lived.
Casa natale di Pirandello — at Caos, outside the city, with his tomb.
Porto Empedocle — the sulphur and emigration port below the town.
Sciacca — the coastal town, and the seat of the archive's second section.
The sulphur country — the mining landscape of the interior.
Your family's parish — the record-keeping institution before 1820.
Family history
Where the records are
Archives and registers
The city was called Girgenti until 1927, and the archive files by the name in use at the time.
Related places
Keep exploring
The journey does not end at the boundary of one comune. The province, the region and the neighbouring towns often hold the rest of the picture.
Your Roots. Their Story. Your Place.
Agrigento is more than a place on a map. It is a part of you.
FIND YOUR COMUNE →