Everything began with the politico-social innovations brought by the law of 1812, which abolished the feudal system and again by the changing general conditions turning to a continuous improvement. Savoca was always losing more influence with the coastal hamlets of Furci, Bucalo, Porto Salvo and Barracca, which indistinctly represented the coastal area of Savoca. Eating at its prestige, reacting to unfair, embittering fiscal acts, which in 1820 pushed the inhabitants of the coastal area to rebel against its greed. The Marinoti under the leadership of Don Angelo Caminiti gathered up the Baglio of Sparagona on Sunday, June 23, along the River Savoca and arrived at the valley of Abramo. They attacked Savoca, where they pillaged the municipal seat, burning records, papers, documents, etc. The episode was in effect a more equal redistribution of fiscal burdens and marked, meanwhile, the measure of the decadence of supremacy of Savoca, making villages of the shore aware of being able to administer for themselves and to be self-sufficient. In that time, the high road was completed in 1828, which crossed the whole shore area, leaving Savoca off its track, thereby bringing benefits which were so important to allow public works, eventually reaching the lower villages.

The First Demand of 1847

Thus, with the example of Casalvecchio and Pagliara, which had already freed themselves from the Savocan yoke, the villages of the shore, taking advantage of the disgrace into which Savoca had fallen, following the failed insurrection anti-Burbon of 1847 and 1848, endeavored to ask insistently that the Burbon government lift each jurisdiction detaining their villages with their submission.

In 1847, the village of Furci sent a plan to King Ferdinand II, who was in Messina, to obtain a very longed-for autonomy from Savoca and the institution of a new community to be named Furci. The request was not to be hoped for but the proper occasion for another attempt was quickly presented when, in Palermo, the people rose against the Burbons, restoring the old Sicilian Parliament. The expectation of liberty, in fact, encouraged many marine who followed Luciano Crisafulli (from Casalvecchio Siculo), Colonel Giovanni Interdonato and his brother Stefano (both from Nizza in Sicily), volunteered their workers to the insurrection movement. Among these were Guiseppe Caminiti ( see photo of 1868), son of Angelo, who was named President of the War committee and was assigned to watch over the Savoca shore. On this subject, historian Raffalle Villadi in his voluminous book, Conspiracy and Revolution of 1881, spoke of Caminiti in this way: “Among all, Guiseppe Caminiti distinguished himself by his ability and especially in organizing the young men … on May 29, 1848. Caminiti sent a petition to the President and the people of the legislative house of the Sicilian Parliament to obtain a separation from Savoca Marina. Thanks to this petition and his was service, Caminiti obtained from the Sicilian Parliament a decree which set up the Marina of Savoca as an autonomous community with the name of Bucalo.

Commune of Bucalo in 1849

The new town, though, had a short life. In fact, it was installed on January 1, 1849 and lasted until March 31, 1849. The first and only mayor was appropriately Guiseppe Caminiti and the municipal seat was in his own house in Sparagona. The Baglio was an enclosed courtyard which overlooked the buildings of the Caminiti family property. Other than the house, there was an old tower, “the trappeto” where the olives were worked, an old pool, a big tub, etc. Also in the Baglio was a small community, autonomous economically. The first glimmer of autonomy was exactly at the above mentioned Baglio, the Tower of Baglio could be justly named The Tower of Autonomy. The community of Bucalo, though having had a short life, registered in three months: 29 births, five marriages and five deaths. If you are curious, I give you the name of the first baby: it was a girl, Rosa Nicita, born January 7, 1849, of Vincenzo Nicita and Acterina Rascona, who lived in Bucalo. The first marriage was celebrated on January 21, 1849, between Salvatore Irrera and Agatina Moschella, living in Bucalo. The first death was registered in the hamlet of Catalmo on January 30, 1849: Rosario Altasonna, age 50. All these acts are signed: Municipal President, Giuseppe Caminiti.

Commune of Santa Teresa di Riva in 1854

On the first of April 1849, with the return of the Burbons, everything went back to its original state. Unfortunately, these hamlets were subject to pillaging and acts of vandalism. The Burbons disembarked from a steamship anchored at the mouth of the River Savoca, where first they sheltered the troops of Colonel Ascenzo and then they began to go toward Taromina. Then, on that occasion, the Burbon troops destroyed the Baglio and the tower. They even destroyed the old tower of the Saracen – but that’s another story. The Caminitis, aware of the uneasiness and strong with success – even if short-lived – of the experience of 1849, aided by a priest named Vincenzo Trimarchi, made every effort to riot for autonomy. The hamlet on the shore then numbered about 1,500 inhabitants. Unfortunately, some years passed before the hamlets could obtain their autonomy from Savoca. Also, it was necessary for the Community Council to deliberate in favor of division, a difficult thing to do given the strong influence of the local notables. Then the Inland Council of Messina, Don Michele Celesti, who had taken his to heart, called the Communal Council of Savoca to Messina so that every council member could freely express his own opinion. Then, the mayor of Savoca went to Messina and, understanding the intentions of the Inland Council, left furious before the first meeting. In fact, his name is not in the transcript. ( See transcript of the meeting .) There was, for this intention, even an intervention to the Inland office of the Province of Messina by Prince Satriano.

After approval of the above-mentioned document, Guiseppe Caminiti sent to Palermo a copy of the Division of the shore from high Savoca ( see document) in which was explained, again another time, the motives by which the Marina would obtain its autonomy from Savoca. The decree, which separated the Marina from Savoca with the name Santa Teresa, was dated July 1853 and was signed by King Ferdinand II. Among others, it was regulated that on January 1, 1854, the quarters of Furci, Porto Salvo-Barracca and Bucalo formed one community with an administration proper and separate and had its own seat in the Furci quarter, assuming the new community of Santa Teresa. Unfortunately, the birth of the new community was not the most happy occasion because, in 1854, there was an outbreak of cholera (40 people died). In February of the following year, 1855, there was a transfer of the Seat of Justice ( Mondamentale, see decree) which Savoca tried to defend for a long time. With Garibaldi undertaking and the unification of Italy, the community in 1862 assumed the name of Santa Teresa di Riva, by its evident morphological locale, but even to distinguish it from the French citizen with the same name. But there were other struggles, other internal recriminations in the new community, because the citizens of Bucalo wanted the town hall to be located in the hamlet as it was with the Sicilian Parliament of 1848.

Thus, thirteen years later, on the 15 th of December 1867, Victor Emanuel II signed in Florence a decree with which the municipal seat of 1868 was transformed from Furci to Bucalo, which in the meanwhile became the center of commerce of the area. ( See photo of various municipal seats .) Today the Municipal Palace is between Municipal Square and Lungomare Centro. We will complete this historic excursion with the name of the first born in the community of Santa Teresa di Riva, who was Francesco Caminiti, born on the 4 th of January, 1854, of Carmelo and Santa Pugliatti, signed by Mayor Vincenzo Gregorio (first mayor originally from Furci.)

Information on the Caminiti Family is found on the page Personaggi