Santa Ninfa is located between Segesta and Selinunte, 410 meters above sea level. It was founded as a feudal commune in the early 17th century. In 1609 Luigi Arias Giardina bought the area, becoming its marquis. It was he who named the town, dedicating it to a Palermo martyr saint. Most of the churches and monuments that make up its historical and artistic heritage also arose during this period. Unfortunately, however, many of them were lost during the violent earthquake that devastated the entire Belice Valley in 1968 and destroyed, almost completely, the town. The restoration works managed to save the Purgatory and Badia churches. The former, with its neo-Renaissance facade and three-nave interior, preserves some 17th- and 18th-century Sicilian paintings and some sculptural groups taken from the earthquake-destroyed Mother Church. The second, on the other hand, of more recent construction, has a late Baroque-style facade with a wide tympanum and four pilasters. The remarkable geological and geomorphological interest of the surrounding area justified the establishment of the Nature Reserve Cave of Santa Ninfa within a chalk plateau near the city.