From the Elymians to united Italy, passing through many dominations.

After conquering Segesta, the Elymians also settled on Mount Bonifato, which, at 826 meters high, allowed them to protect themselves from their enemies. But when Segesta came under Roman rule, the mountain’s location also lost its strategic importance.

In 827 theArabs built a small castle on the mountain and a garrison in the valley that took the name of their emir: Al-Qamah, from which today’s name is derived. The first official document mentioning the town speaks of a mazil(hamlet), a cluster of houses therefore, surrounded by fertile land. In the Norman period, the Arabs gradually left the area, the inhabitants of the mount began to move into the hamlet, and Catholicism spread enormously among the population.

It was not until the Aragonese domination that Alcamo acquired the appearance of a real city: pirate raids were harshly fought, walls were built with the 4 entrance gates, and an urban layout was conceived that could accommodate the approximately 3,000 inhabitants, including many immigrants from all over Italy. Trade also increased, and Alcamo became, along with the rest of Sicily, the granary from which the crown drew its food supplies.
Charles V, returning from Tunisia, also passed through here and, in his honor, one of the old gates was closed and four others were opened.

Between the second half of the 1500s and the 1600s, the city was repeatedly hit by the plague and ended up being sold by the Counts of Modica to the Prince of Roccafiorita.

Alcamo, too, made its contribution to the Italian Risorgimento : many Alcamoans participated in the insurrectional uprisings, and from here Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator of Sicily in 1860.