Fondachelli-Fantina is a comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

(municipality) in the Sicilian

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 Province of Messina

Province of Messina

Messina is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital is the city of Messina.-Geography and demography :...

. Situated between Novara

Novara di Sicilia

Novara di Sicilia is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 160 km east of Palermo and about 40 km southwest of Messina...

 and Francavilla di Sicilia

Francavilla di Sicilia

Francavilla di Sicilia is a town and comune in the Province of Messina on the island of Sicily, Italy.It has a population of about 4,000 people and is situated in the southern part of the province, close to the northern slopes of Mount Etna. The distance to Messina is about 50 km, and the...

, in the southern Peloritani

Peloritani

The Peloritani are a mountain range of north-eastern Sicily, in southern Italy, extending for some 65 km from Capo Peloro to the Nebrodi Mountains. At North and West they are bordered by the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas, respectively.The highest peaks are the Montagna Grande and the Rocca Novara...

 mountains, it rises on an inland area and is 604m above sea level. The community also borders the municipalities of Antillo

Antillo

Antillo is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 170 km east of Palermo and about 35 km southwest of Messina...

 and Rodì Milici

Rodì Milici

Rodì Milici is an Italian comune in the Province of Messina in Sicily.-Geography:The comune is located about 160 km east of Palermo and about 35 km west of Messina...

. It is 81 km from Catania

Catania

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

, 87 km from Messina, 129 km from Syracuse, and 235 km from Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

.

Developed from a number of rural hamlets

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in the territory of Novara di Sicilia

Novara di Sicilia

Novara di Sicilia is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 160 km east of Palermo and about 40 km southwest of Messina...

, the collective community attained autonomous

Autonomous area

An autonomous area or autonomous entity is an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or freedom from an external authority. Typically it is either geographically distinct from the rest of the country or populated by a national minority. Countries that include autonomous areas are often...

 status in 1950 and called itself Fondachelli-Fantina, a name derived

Derivation (linguistics)

In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...

 from Fondaci (Arabic funduq : "stores" or "warehouses") and Fantinia (Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 infans: "child"). It is historically important as one of the last Sicilian municipalities where Gallo-Sicilian survives as a spoken dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

.

History: Political and Geological

The area now known as Fondachelli-Fantina always has been quite isolated. Even today, the long, winding road connecting the municipality to the Ionian

Ionian Sea

The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...

 coast can become impassable during the winter. However, this insularity has aided in preserving the Gallo-Sicilian dialect, a remnant of the period during the Swabia

Swabia

Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

n-Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 domination (1061-1266) when people from Northern Italy

Northern Italy

Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...

 migrated to the area.

The town passed into the hands of the Palizzi

Palizzi

Palizzi is a comune in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about 120 km southwest of Catanzaro and about 30 km southeast of Reggio Calabria...

 family, who held it until 1353, when the Gioiemi of Novara took possession. Between 1720 and 1880, the territory endured heavy mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 activity. The twenty-six scattered mines used a great quantity of lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

, destabilized the land and degraded the mountains. Additionally, continuous flooding had devastating consequences. Major flood

Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...

s in 1880, 1951, 1958 and 1973 continued the territorial degradation

Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife...

.

However, administrative autonomy from Novara di Sicilia on June 20, 1950, gave Fondachelli-Fantina legislative

Legislature

A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

 powers and control of public works

Public works

Public works are a broad category of projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community...

 as well as financial means to begin reforestation

Reforestation

Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted, usually through deforestation....

 efforts and build roads, houses and aqueduct

Aqueduct

An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....

s.

Culture

As of March 2009, the population of Fondachelli-Fantina was 1,234 with a density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 of 30 inhabitants per square kilometer. Its economy

Economy

An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

 is based primarily on livestock

Livestock

Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

 breeding

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....

 (cattle, pigs, goats and sheep) and the cultivation

Tillage

Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shovelling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking...

 of grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...

s, dried fruit, wine grapes and wood. On June 22 and the second Friday of July each year, the town hosts cattle fair

Fair

A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...

s which are attended by exhibitors from other communities.
The town has four schools: one pre-school, two primary schools, and one secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

. Community churches (Messina diocese

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

) include S. Maria della Provvidenza and Santi Angeli Custodi ES Giuseppi. The community celebrates two unique feast days: the Feast of Santissimi Angeli Custodi on the second Sunday of July, and the Feast of Madonna

Mary (mother of Jesus)

Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

 della Provvidenza (Our Lady of Providence

Divine Providence

In Christian theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's activity in the world. " Providence" is also used as a title of God exercising His providence, and then the word are usually capitalized...

) on September 8.

The War Memorial

War memorial

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...

 ("Monument

Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...

 to the Fallen") is in the town centre

Town centre

The town centre is the term used to refer to the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town.Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus stations...

 on the Piazza

Piazza

A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...

 santissimi Angeli Custodi, where social and sporting events are held. The Monument to Padre Pio is on via XX Giugno 1950.

Municipal Administration

Comune di Fondachelli-Fantina

Mayor: Francesco Pettinato

Address: via Col. Mastroeni provincia Messina - ITALY

Fondachelli Post Office

Address: via Rubbino No. 7 CAP 98050

Fondachelli-Fantina, Messina Province (ME)