Lercara Friddi is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, which is in the Italian region of Sicily, located about 45 kilometres (28 mi) southeast of Palermo.

Lercara Friddi rises almost at the foot of Colle Madore and its Sican archaeological site, between the Landro valley and the valley of Fiumetorto and Platani. Archaeological discoveries showed that this Colle and the valley have been inhabited since the 11th century BC, first inhabited by the Sican people. It is located on the Palermo – Agrigento route, at a height of 670 metres above sea level. Lercara Friddi was home to many sulfur mines. When they closed in the 1950s, many of the miners immigrated to Belgium, to work in the coal mines. It borders Castronovo di Sicilia, Prizzi, Roccapalumba, and Vicari.

It was founded in 1583, as part of the new cities established by the Spanish administration of King Philip II of Spain to repopulate the abandoned feudalities, and was granted a licentia populandi on September 22, 1595, though people had lived in the area continuously from circa 1400. It was granted to Baldassarre Gomez de Amezcua; who was married to Francesca Lercaro, daughter of Leonello and Elisabetta Ventimiglia, who had some marriage dowries in the feudary of Friddi, Friddigrandi, and Faverchi, dedicated to the production of wine and wheat. The descendants of Baldassarre Gomez de Amezcua and Francesca Lercaro were the Counts of Lercara Friddi until 1956.

Leonello Lercaro was a Genoese entrepreneur of Armenian origin, who came to Sicily in 1570 in search of better luck, and thanks to whose resourcefulness the original city nucleus was created. The family was Catholic, of Greek rite, and this can be seen in Lercara with the icon of the Madonna of Constantinople, found by the twelve-year-old Oliva Baccarella in 1807. The graffiti effigy, bearing the date of 1734, came presumably from a Lercarese church that followed the rite of the Lercari. The church was found outdoors, near a stream: the popular tradition passes on that event as miraculous, from which were the origins of the patronal feast and the church of Maria Santissima of Constantinople (which preserved the graffiti).

For a long time, the major urban areas of Lercara Friddi were mainly places of worship: after the church of St. Gregory of Armenia, built by Leonello Lercaro between 1573 and 1580 in the area of Via dei Martiri, there was the church of Our Lady of the Rosary, built by Baldassarre Gomez de Amezcua between 1595 and 1604 on Pucci Street, the church of St. Anne, built by Francesca Lercaro between 1605 and 1610 on the same street of the same name, and the church of San Gregorio Traumaturgo, initially built by Raffaella Lercaro de Amezcua between 1627 and 1640 and then rebuilt several times until the early 19th century, corresponding to the upper part of Giulio Sartorio Street (all disappeared over time). By 1651, Lercara Friddi had a population of 281 residents.

The initial development of the settlement suffered from the dangerous conditions imposed on the settlers, but it found impetus in 1618 with the arrival of Francesco Scammacca Gravina, heir to the Lercaro barony, who in addition to residing in the nascent centre, favoured improvements such as new roads, beverage works and additional churches. In 1708, the barony of Lercara was elevated to the rank of principality.

In the book About Noble Sicily, written in 1754 by Francesco Maria Emanuele Gaetani, Lercara delli Friddi turns out to be "Baronial land with a mere and mixed empire [...] inhabited by 1536 souls, for which there are 483 houses [...] six Churches."

On 24 June 1800, Lercara Friddi was visited by the King of Sicily Ferdinand I, along with his wife, Queen Maria Carolina of Austria. They were hosted by Don Stefano Petta, Archpriest of Lercara, along with Don Marcello Sartorio.