Guastedda of San Martino Festival

The Guastedda Festival in Montedoro

Every autumn, to mark the Saint Martin celebrations, the village of Montedoro, in the province of Caltanissetta, dedicates an evening to rediscovering one of its most deep-rooted culinary traditions: the Guastedda of San Martino Festival. The event takes place in Piazza Europa, in the heart of this small town in the Sicani Mountains, Sicily, and is promoted by the Municipality of Montedoro in collaboration with the Pro Loco and the Noela Carlotta association.

The guastedda, a traditional Nisseno pastry

The guastedda is a typical fried pastry from the Montedoro and Nisseno tradition, closely linked to the Saint Martin holiday. It consists of soft wheat flour dough—traditionally Maiorca variety—fried in lard and then brushed with honey. It is a close relative of the famous Nisseno ricotta raviola, with which it shares the same dough. It is a simple, ancient pastry, a symbol of conviviality and genuine flavors, which in Montedoro is traditionally paired with new wine, following the custom that the year's wine should be tasted around Saint Martin's Day, November 11th.

An evening of taste and folk music

The festival transforms Piazza Europa into a meeting place for flavors, culture, and collective memory. Alongside the tasting of guastedda and other local products, the evening is enlivened by folk music from the Sicilian tradition, bringing the joy and rhythms of Sicani culture to the square. The event is part of the regional circuit "Le Vie del Cibo della Lunga Vita" (The Food Paths of Long Life), an initiative that promotes the food and wine heritage of the Sicani villages, supported by the Sicilian Region and numerous local partners.

Montedoro, the town of sulfur and stars

The festival is also an opportunity to discover Montedoro, a village in the Nisseno hinterland founded in 1635 and famous in the 19th century for its sulfur mines, the "yellow gold" that briefly made it one of the world's leading centers for mineral extraction. Today, the town, known as the "town of sulfur and stars" thanks to its astronomical observatory and planetarium, preserves a dense network of house-museums dedicated to peasant culture, lost crafts, and mining history. The Guastedda Festival is part of this identity heritage, weaving together gastronomy, popular faith, and community roots.

Why attend

• Taste the guastedda, a typical fried pastry from Montedoro, paired with new wine.
• Experience the Saint Martin tradition in an authentic village in the Sicani Mountains.
• Listen to folk music from the Sicilian tradition in Piazza Europa.
• Discover Montedoro, its mining past, and its starry sky.

The Guastedda of San Martino Festival is an intimate and genuine event, perfect for those who want to experience the most authentic side of Sicily—the one found in the small villages of the Caltanissetta province, where gastronomy is still a story of community.