The town was built in 1693 , after the destruction by an earthquake of the old town of Occhialà , located to the north of the modern Grammichele . Occhialà , which , on account of the similarity of name , is generally identified with Echetla , a frontier city between Syracusan and Carthaginian territory in the time of Hiero II , and which appears to have been originally a Sicel city in which Greek civilization prevailed from the 5th century onwards . Being laid out on a hexagonal street plan , it is one of several Val di Noto towns with distinctive layouts
an earthquake
1693 Sicily earthquake
Grammichele