Sicily · Palermo
Mezzojuso
An Arbëreshë village of two mother churches, one Latin, one Byzantine, whose name is thought to come from the Arabic for the houses of Joseph.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Mezzojuso is on our list
It holds Città del Castagno.
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Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
- By car
- 54 min from Palermo
- Population
- 2,544
- J11°
- F13°
- M14°
- A17°
- M22°
- J28°
- J32°
- A31°
- S27°
- O22°
- N17°
- D13°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Mezzojuso sits at 534 meters on the lower slope of the massif, forty-five kilometers southeast of Palermo. The name probably comes from the Arabic Manzil Yusuf, the houses of Joseph, a Saracen-era hamlet that passed into Norman hands in 1091. In the 1440s Albanian stradiot troops under Demetrio Reres crossed the Adriatic to serve King Alfonso of Aragon, and Albanians later resettled the abandoned village; in 1501 their community formalised the rebuilding of the church and the use of the Byzantine Greek rite.
Today Mezzojuso is one of the Sicilian Arbëreshë communes, alongside Piana degli Albanesi and Palazzo Adriano: the language is mostly gone but the Greek rite holds. The Latin and Greek parishes sit as two mother churches within the same small town, each still active, each keeping its own liturgy, a division that runs through the community rather than across it. A Basilian monastery, restored in the 1920s, keeps a library of Greek codices and sixteenth-century editions apart from the two parishes, evidence of a religious life that took more than one institutional form. What survives is not a single rite preserved by isolation but two rites maintained side by side, an arrangement that has held since the fifteenth-century resettlement rather than dissolved into one.
How to get there
From Catania (CTA), about 3 h 4 min by car.
By car from the center of Palermo 54 min.
Coming by train into Palermo Centrale? Mezzojuso is about 51 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie
Sixteenth-century Greek-rite church with frescoes by Olivio Sozzi from 1752 and an iconostasis of sixteenth-century icons among the most valuable in Sicily.
Chiesa Maria Santissima Annunziata
On the main piazza, the Latin-rite mother church stands as the parallel parish to the Greek-rite church nearby.
Chiesa di San Nicolò di Mira
Byzantine liturgy is still celebrated here by priests of the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi.
Monastero basiliano di San Basilio
Greek-rite monastery founded in 1609 by the Reres family, restored in 1920 by the Basilian monk Nilo Borgia, with a library of Greek codices.
Rocca Busambra
The limestone massif behind the village is the highest peak in the Bosco della Ficuzza, its slope carrying the chestnut woods below.
Living here
Could you live here?
Mezzojuso is at the end of the road.
- A village of 2,544. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Marineo, is 29 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Bagheria, a city of 53,100, is 41 min by car. Inside our 30 to 60 minutes: close for the services, far enough to keep its own life.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 2,544, down 14.2% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Bagheria, 41 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Corleone, 16 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €380 to €560 per m² to buy, €1.30 to €1.70 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 94% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Palermo airport (PMO), 1 h 23 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Palermo, 54 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
2% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Morocco and Romania, against 9% across Italy. There are 228 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 45% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Palermo province ranks 97th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Corleone, 16 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Palermo, 32 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Palermo, 32 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 32 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.96% a year in property tax at the 2025 rate, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.7% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Sicily spends about €1,820 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €524 a year for water, on the Sicily average. In Palermo, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.26, a meal in a pizzeria €13.56 and a man's haircut €17.31.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone D, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 1 to April 15, up to 12 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. The national maps show no residents in a high or medium flood zone. 10% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
ARBËRESHË
Founded in the 1440s by Albanian soldiers under Demetrio Reres, one of the Sicilian Arbëreshë communes still celebrating the Byzantine Greek rite.
TWO RITES
Two sixteenth-century mother churches, the Latin-rite Annunziata and the Greek-rite San Nicolò di Mira, both still parish churches.
CASTAGNO
Chestnut woods on the Rocca Busambra slope, harvested in October and recognized by the Città del Castagno network.
Common questions
- What is Mezzojuso known for?
- Mezzojuso is an Arbëreshë village of two mother churches, one Latin, one Byzantine, whose name is thought to come from the Arabic for the houses of Joseph.
- Where is Mezzojuso?
- Mezzojuso is a comune in the province of Palermo, in Sicily, at 534 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Mezzojuso?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Palermo (PMO), about 1 h 23 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Palermo to Mezzojuso?
- About 54 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Mezzojuso?
- Best in Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and March the wettest, with about 12 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Mezzojuso?
- Ferla, San Marco d'Alunzio and Sant'Alfio.
- How many people live in Mezzojuso?
- 2,544 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Mezzojuso a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Mezzojuso is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Marineo, is 29 min away. The nearest city, Bagheria, is 41 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Corleone, 16 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 94% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 534 m
- Population: 2,544
- Surface area: 49.27 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Similar
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What all six share with Mezzojuso: under 3,000 people
Ferla
Province: Siracusa
both inland in Sicily · both hill towns
San Marco d'Alunzio
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Sant'Alfio
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both inland in Sicily · both hill towns
Novara di Sicilia
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both inland in Sicily
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Province: Rimini
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