In the village of Maniace, on the west side of Mount Etna, there is Castel Maniace, once an abbey, founded by Margaret of Navarre in 1173, on the place where the Byzantine general George Maniaces defeated the Saracens in 1040.
Some centuries later, in 1799, the palace and the estate were donated to Admiral Nelson by Ferdinand the 1st, King of Two Sicilies, as a gift for his help in regaining the throne of Naples and Sicily during the Napoleonic wars.
The dukedom is located in the district of Bronte, an important centre for the cultivation of pistachio trees.
