Origins The founders of the first inhabited center were the
Sicani in the 7th century BC. They were an indigenous population of western Sicily who developed between the 2nd millennium and the 5th century BC, and were then absorbed by the
Greek civilization. The Sican culture in the area is evidenced by the presence of numerous burial chambers.
Greek age Thermae was founded in the 5th century BC by the
Greeks, as its name suggests, as a
thermal spa for
Selinunte, 30 km distant, whose citizens came there to bathe in the
sulphurous
springs, still much valued for their medical properties, of Mount San Calogero which rises up behind the town. There is no account of the existence of a town on the site during the period of the independence of Selinunte, though the thermal waters would always have attracted some population to the spot. It seems to have been much frequented in the time of the Romans. At a later period they were called the Aquae Labodes or Larodes, under which name they appear in the Itineraries.
Pliny was most likely mistaken in assigning the rank of a
colonia to the southern, rather than northern, town of the same name.
Strabo mentions the waters (). The origin of the town's name has been much debated, with
Latin "ex acqua", as a reference to the springs of thermal water of the area, or
Arabic "Syac", meaning bath, and al Saqquah, dating back to the cult of the Syrian god "Shai al Quaaum", as possibilities.
Medieval age The city walls, the bastions and the Old Castle owe their existence to
Roger the Great Count. A royal city that had remained faithful to
Manfred of Sicily during the
Angevine invasion, by 1268 A.D. Sciacca was besieged by
Charles I of Anjou and surrendered the following year. After the
Sicilian Vespers, it established itself as a
free commune. During the
War of the Sicilian Vespers, the city was besieged numerous times; the final engagement of the 20-year war took place in 1302, when a French army failed
to capture the city. Following the Vespers era, the Peralta family took possession of it and obtained from the king of Sicily the right to mint coins. In the following centuries, the town was at the center of bloody feuds between rival baronial families (the Luna, of Aragonese origin, and the Perollo, of Norman stock), which nearly halved its population. In 1647, the impoverished town was the seat of an anti-Spanish rebellion.
Modern age During World War II, the Italian
Regia Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) had a base near Sciacca. ==Geography==