Aspra, Sicily Aspra, Sicily Aspra (Aspira in Sicilian) is a town in the "comune" of Bagheria in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. A village within the municipality of Bagheria, approximately of 3700 inhabitants, by the sea at the East end of the Palermo's Gulf facing the capital city of Sicily. Typical are the wooden boats (lancitiedde in local dialect) vividly colored. The first traces of the town are thought to belong to the period of Arabic domination in Sicily, as it is suspected that the name comes from the Arabic حجر («stone»). Aspra was in fact, for generations, used to
Sicily of Benevento, which then occupied most of southern Italy. Rumors that the capital of the empire was to be moved to Syracuse probably cost Constans his life, as he was assassinated in 668. His son Constantine IV succeeded him, a brief usurpation in Sicily by Mezezius being quickly suppressed by the new emperor. Contemporary accounts report that the Greek language was widely spoken on the island during this period. In 740 Emperor Leo III the Isaurian transferred Sicily from the jurisdiction of the church of Rome to that of Constantinople, placing the island within the eastern church. In 826 Euphemius,