Property Description

Tenuta Divina Kratas –  Vast 38-acre Sicilian Estate and Spiritual Retreat, with Nine Bedrooms, Two Kitchens and a Yoga Studio

Deep in the wilds of the southern Sicilian countryside, on a truly vast tranche of land spanning nearly forty acres, this storied property is a spiritual retreat which has long been devoted to communal living and meditative contemplation. With a yoga studio, nine large bedrooms capable of sleeping over thirty guests at once, and all the infrastructure designed to support a haven for contemplation and reflection, this is a special property whose vendors are looking for a unique buyer.

When the current occupiers bought the land, they combined the quartet of homes into a single large centre, and their hope is to find a purchaser who shares their passion for the spiritual lifestyle and belief in the healing powers of nature and the universe.

There are of course possibilities to reconfigure the existing building and even for further development. There is ample fertile soil to support a completely self-sustaining lifestyle for the new inhabitants, whether they be visitors to the centre in its current form, or perhaps a group of families or friends who dream of escaping from the shackles of the modern world to cultivate their own land.  A vast Sicilian estate and spiritual retreat that will bring joy to present and future generations.

The buildings provide 800m2 of habitable space, and the wildly varying shapes and sizes of the nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms offer innumerable possibilities for the use of this tranquil and serene estate. For a big dreamer who wants to relocate to Sicily not only for weekend visits, but as a lifestyle choice, this could make a spectacular investment in the future of an unspoilt and undisturbed region.

The Property

The main building has the form of a baglio, a Sicilian farmhouse with associated outbuildings which supported all manner of workers associated with the surrounding land. These vast, wandering structures, often with noble history, are some of the most prized real estate on the island. While the design and fitting of the home is not geared towards luxury, but rather simplicity and sustainability, it has unbelievable potential for renovation and redesign in all manner of different directions.

The owners are listing Tenuta Divino Kratas for sale only because of their advancing age – as you will imagine, the upkeep of such a large estate is no small project. However, while they are open to consider all manner of proposals, it is of paramount importance to them that the unique, even magical reality of the property is preserved and further developed by like-minded souls.

The origins of some parts of the house date back to the 14th century, and it was later inhabited by the noble Vaccari family in the 18th century. There is a calendario astronomico in the grounds, created by the Sicanians, an ancient race who made their home in Sicily between the Phonecian and Greek epochs on the island. This is land steeped in the most primitive roots of Sicilian life. A well-known arco-astronomer Vincenzo Mulè has confirmed to the owners that a lay line (an energy flow believed to accelerate the spiritual healing process) runs across the property, which is an accelerator of the development of karma.

As it is, the house is a long terrace of neatly whitewashed building, with a few large communal living spaces, chief of which is the studio or seminar room. This would make a wonderful focus for a study or research centre, perhaps an artistic community. Again, the only limit is your capacity to dream in harmony with the environment.

The nine bedrooms vary from simple but spacious double rooms to small dormitories which sleep four in comfort. One has an office. A pair of huge master rooms offer even more space and some beautiful views of the surrounding countryside. There are also roof terraces where you can enjoy the undisturbed beauty of the countryside while soaking up the warm Sicilian sunshine.

The kitchens and dining areas are set up to feed large numbers of people at a sitting. The bathrooms are a mix of conventional domestic-style spaces and shower rooms with multiple cubicles, such as you might find at a campsite or a lido. One has a bathtub.

The seminar room, or studio, is a huge, welcoming space comfortably capable of holding two dozen participants in a workshop or training session.

The enormous estate has been very well kept by the current owners, and completely encircled by a fence which runs for a huge 2.5 km. As well as pasture and scrubland you will find 370 olive trees and 60 almond trees. A small allotment allows you to grow your own fruit and vegetables in convenience, and there is also the remains of an ancient hut which is built a bit like an Apulian trullo.

As part of a full restoration of the house, inside and out, the vendors installed a 6kw photovoltaic energy system to meet a sizeable percentage of the site’s energy needs. Some rooms are connected to a central heating system fuelled by LPG and there are also several wood burning stoves, whose heat passes to rooms above via a network of metal pipes.

The house borders on a river from which the delicious drinking water is drawn.

Surroundings

The plot on which this Sicilian estate and spiritual retreat stands is gently contoured, between 300 and 350m above sea level. It lies in a valley and is flanked on two sides by steep hills. The first impression is that it is fairly dry terrain, but as natural, harmonious and peaceful as the philosophy of the centre would lead you to expect.

Reachable in about ten to fifteen minutes by car, the small hilltop village of Caltabellotta is a friendly community with fewer than 4000 residents. A steep climb from the Tenuta, it is a full thousand metres above sea level, a vantage point which saw it used in the past as a military outpost. The Greeks called this place Triocala or ‘Three Beautiful Things’, in reference to the spring water, the fertility of the soil and the impregnable cliff which was the protector of the town. Today you will find supermarkets, medical facilities and restaurants. You can swim in the river for much of the year.

There are many beautiful sites and treasures to discover in this part of the country, which is steeped in history. Just remembering that the original Sicanians were followed not only by the Greeks but by communities of Romans, Arabs and Normans, each of whom left their own cultural and archaeological footprint.

The huge tranche of land is located in the province of Agrigento and in the area of the municipality of Caltabellotta, about twenty minutes by car from the sea, where you will find the lovely lido beach of Sciacca. The town itself is the nearest large settlement, itself conveniently reached in around twenty minutes.

For arrivals from further afield, the airports of both Palermo and Trapani are each around a 90 minute drive. The mystical Teatro Andromeda is an hour away to the east, while a trip to marvel at the extraordinary historical spectacle of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento is only seventy minutes.

Potential

There are so many options open here. Permaculture, a rehabilitation centre, courses in yoga, healing processes, meditation, artistry, eurythmy, qigong, etc. This property would also be suitable, for example, for several families who want to live here together and build something in unison.

We noticed that a car park currently stands in front of the house, and with so much open space at your disposal we would prefer to see terraces there. Despite its proximity to a stream, a river and the Mediterranean Sea, this water-rich location is lacking a swimming pool. The current owners considered it, but it didn’t quite mesh with their ecological concept, so instead they planned a biopool. This has, in fact, already been partially excavated although the work was never completed.

The house is ready to move into and fully habitable, but there is certainly room to make it more efficient and perhaps more comfortable. We would suggest that the windows and bathrooms be replaced, and perhaps access for people with limited mobility could be improved. Remember that for work of this nature you can still benefit from public subsidy through the Italian bonus scheme.

Lastly, as we suggested before, this plot is so large that buildings totalling up to 1500 m² could be realised under local planning laws.

In conclusion, the asking price for the house with a floor area of almost 800 m² and a plot of 155,000 m² seems unbelievably tempting, especially with the option for new construction. Whether you choose to maintain the current form of this Sicilian estate and spiritual retreat, or invest in developing your own vision, there is untold potential in these evocative and magical hills.