Acquaviva Platani
The territory of Acquaviva Platani, plunged in the beauties of the Platani River valley, has been inhabited since the Neolithic.
It was founded in 1635 by Don Francesco Spadafora, in a location situated higher than the primitive Casale Michinese founded by the Berbers, and less sweltering. The name, Aqua Vivam, later unified in “Acquaviva”, was given because of the abundance of water sources in its territory; in 1862, to avoid confusions with towns bearing the same name, the specification “Platani”, from the nearby river, was added.
The town grew in the course of the 17th Century, but a few years of economic problems drove, in 1680, Caterina Spadafora, a descendant of Don Francesco, to sell the Michinese feud to Donna Francesca Abarca, who, in 1867, transferred it to her nephew/grandson Michele Oliveri, who obtained from Charles II the title of Duke of Acquaviva, which no one else had so far.
Acquaviva Platani became an autonomous municipality after the abolition of feudalism in Sicily in 1812 and the new administrative regulations of 1816-1817.
