[1] King Martin I of Sicily, on 20 November 1405, formally recognised the family's noble Norman origins by issuing a diploma (a form of charter) upon Giacomo of Gravina.

[1][2][4] Following the charter, Giacomo chose to relocate the family to Sicily, where the King allowed him and his descendants to be buried in the Royal Chapel of Catania, now known as Basilica della Collegiata.

[2][1] The family acquired the surname Cruyllas, and kept it for three centuries, when Girolamo Gravina, 4th baron of Palagonia, in 1531 married Contessina Moncada Cruyllas, the last heir of a family of Spanish origin, who brought him a very rich dowry including the fief of Calatabiano and that of Francofonte.

Their exponents always occupied important positions in the history of the island, but also of all Europe, as the case of Federico Carlo Gravina Cruyllas.

The house's coat of arms is emblazoned as "Azure, two bends Or, a mullet of ten points in sinister chief Argent".