Agrigento Italy

Agrigento is a hilltop city on Sicily's southwest shore. It's known for the Valley of the Temples, a vast archaeological site with well-preserved Greek temples and the ruins of the ancient city of Akragas. On the modern city's outskirts is the Museo Archeologico Regionale Agrigento, with artifacts and a telamon (huge male statue). West lies Scala dei Turchi, an unusual stepped white cliff overlooking sandy beaches.

 


Founded as a Greek colony in the 6th century B.C., Agrigento became one of the leading cities in the Mediterranean world. Its supremacy and pride are demonstrated by the remains of the magnificent Doric temples that dominate the ancient town, much of which still lies intact under today's fields and orchards. Selected excavated areas throw light on the later Hellenistic and Roman town and the burial practices of its early Christian inhabitants.
 
Agrigento has a special place among classical sites in the history of the ancient world because of the way in which its original site, typical of Greek colonial settlements, has been preserved, as well as the substantial remains of a group of buildings from an early period that were not overlain by later structures or converted to suit later tastes and cults.

 
This splendid archaeological park consists of eight temples (and various other remains) built between about 510 BC and 430 BC: the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Concordia, the Temple of Heracles, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Hephaestos, the Temple of Demeter, and the Temple of Asclepius (the God of Medicine). Apart from this latter, which is to be found on the banks of the Akragas river, all are situated in the same area on rocky crests south of modern day Agrigento (not really in a Valley at all!).
 

• Temple of Concordia, whose name comes from a Latin inscription found nearby, and which was built in the 5th century BC. Turned into a church in the 6th century AD, it is now one of the best preserved in the Valley.  
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  From 2011 onwards in front of the temple is the bronze statue of Icarus, made by the Polish artist Igor Mitoraj

  

  The temple was transformed in a catholic church in 597 and so it underwent a radical transformation. For example the main entrance was moved to the rear, the rear cella wall was destroyed and 12 arched apertures were opened in order to obtain a basilica with one central nave and two lateral aisles. 
  
  
  In 1748 the church returned to be a temple and thanks to these modifications the Temple of Concordia survived so well over the centuries. 
   
  
  The peristasis, the collonade, is made of 6x13 columns with a base of four steps. Each column is 6,75m high and is in fact a vertical cylinder that is slightly wider at the bottom. It consists of four drums with the typical doric broad flutes. The columns also have the entasis, the application of a convex curve, an art of swelling, in their lower third in order to correct the optical illusion of the column's concavity
  
  
   
  

• Temple of Juno, also built in the 5th century BC. It was burnt in 406 BC by the Carthaginians.

 

• Temple of Heracles, who was one of the most venerated deities in the ancient Akragas. It is the most ancient in the Valley: destroyed by an earthquake, it consists today of only eight columns.
• Temple of Olympian Zeus, built in 480 BC to celebrate the city-state's victory over Carthage. It is characterized by the use of large scale atlases.
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Two Telamons - supporting statue from the Temple of Zeus are in the area

 The telamon, which lies on the ground, was originally used to support the Temple of Olympian Zeus (Jupiter).

• Temple of Castor and Pollux. Despite its remains including only four columns, it is now the symbol of modern Agrigento.

• Temple of Vulcan, also dating from the 5th century BC. It is thought to have been one of the most imposing constructions in the valley; it is now however one of the most eroded.
• Temple of Asclepius, located far from the ancient town's walls; it was the goal of pilgrims seeking cures for illness.

 

Modern Agrigento used to be the Greek city of Akragas, a colony of settlers mainly from Rhodes and Crete who, having initially settled in Gela, decided to move west, partly in an attempt to stem the ambitious advances of Selinunte and partly because the land in the area was ideal for cultivating olives, grapes and cereal. The city, supposedly founded in 582 BC, soon became prosperous and, in its glory days, was one of the most important and most culturally-advanced Greek cities in the Mediterranean.
 
However, as it grew more and more successful, so did its rivalries with other Greek colonies, especially that of Siracusa. In 406 BC Hannibal and the Carthaginians, working in cahoots with Dionysius of Siracusa, laid siege to the city. After holding out for eight months, Akagras finally fell and its citizens were removed to Gela. Later, they were allowed to return but were prohibited from fortifying their town and had to pay taxes to Carthage.
 
After a relatively peaceful (if undistinguished period), Akagras was thrown into the First Punic War (264 BC) on the side of the Carthaginians and defeated by the Romans in 210 BC.
 
Agrigento was a wealthy ancient city founded about 581 bc by Greek colonists from Gela. It was ruled 570–554 bc by the notorious tyrant Phalaris, who was reputed to have had men roasted alive in a brazen bull, and it reached its peak in 480 when the tyrant Theron, in alliance with Syracuse, won the decisive Battle of Himera over the Carthaginians.
 
In 470 the tyranny was replaced by a democracy. Agrigento was the birthplace of the philosopher-politician Empedocles. Under the tyranny it was a considerable centre of the arts.

The city was neutral in the struggle between Athens and Syracuse but was ravaged by the Carthaginians in 406 bc, a disaster from which it never really recovered. Refounded by the Greek general and statesman Timoleon in 338, it achieved some local importance in the early 3rd century bc but was sacked by the Romans (262) and the Carthaginians (255) before falling finally to Rome in 210 bc.
 
 Under Roman rule its agricultural wealth and the exploitation of the nearby sulfur mines ensured a modest prosperity. In late antiquity its inhabitants withdrew to the relative security of the medieval hilltop town of Girgenti, the nucleus of modern Agrigento.
 
Occupied and colonized by the Saracens in 828, Girgenti was captured in 1087 by the Norman conqueror of Sicily, Count Roger I, who established a Latin bishopric.
 
The plateau site of the ancient city is extraordinarily rich in Greek remains. A wall, with remnants of eight gates, can be traced from the two northern peaks (the Rock of Athena and the hill of Girgenti) to the ridge that carried the south line of the city’s defenses. An almost continuous sacred area along this ridge has been excavated to reveal Agrigento’s most famous remains, its seven Doric temples.
 
The best preserved are two very similar peripteral, hexastyle temples conventionally, though wrongly, attributed to the goddesses Hera and Concordia; the latter temple, which lacks little but the roof, owes its remarkable preservation to having been converted into a church in ad 597.
 
The Temple of Zeus, in front of which stood a huge altar, was one of the largest and most original of all Doric buildings; it was still unfinished in 406 bc. Its ruins were quarried in 1749–63 to build the jetties of Porto Empedocle, and very little is now standing.
 
The Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone (formerly known as the Temple of Castor and Pollux) is notable for many remains of archaic cult buildings. There is a pre-Hellenic cave sanctuary at the foot of the cliffs where the Temple of Demeter, underlying the Church of San Biagio, is found.

There are also ruined temples of Hephaestus and Asclepius (Aesculapius); the “tomb of Theron,” a late Hellenistic funerary monument; and the “Oratory of Phalaris,” a heroon (“heroic shrine”) of the 1st century ad adjoining the 13th-century Church of San Nicola.

A short distance to the east of the latter a considerable quarter of the Greek and Roman town has been excavated, but, apart from extensive remains of aqueducts and cisterns, little is known of the Greek civil or domestic architecture. Earlier classical cemeteries lie beyond the walls.

Agrigento’s economy is based on sulfur and potash mining, agriculture, and tourism. It is served by Porto Empedocle, 9 miles (15 km) southwest, the best harbour on the southwest coast of Sicily and Italy’s principal sulfur port.
 
The olive trees here in Agrigento are among the oldest in Sicily” ..

Taormina Italy

Taormina is located on the east coast of Sicily about halfway between Messina and Catania on the Ionian Sea.

The town itself is perched on a hill about 250 meters above the sea and this provides for some incredibly scenic views from almost anywhere in Taormina.
 
It also has the dubious distinction of sitting practically in the shadow of Mt. Etna, Europe’s largest and most active volcano.

Taormina is often characterized as overly touristy and during the peak season it can get crowded, especially when the cruise ships are in port.  Undoubtedly, Taormina is one of the most picturesque locations in all of Italy
 
Taormina is a hilltop town on the east coast of Sicily. It sits near Mount Etna, an active volcano with trails leading to the summit. The town is known for the Teatro Antico di Taormina, an ancient Greco-­Roman theater still used today. Near the theater, cliffs drop to the sea forming coves with sandy beaches. A narrow stretch of sand connects the mainland to Isola Bella, a tiny island and nature reserve.

The area around Taormina was inhabited by the Siculi even before the Greeks arrived on the Sicilian coast in 734 BC to found a town called Naxos. The theory that Tauromenion was founded by colonists from Naxos is confirmed by Strabo and other ancient writers.
 
The new settlement seems to have risen rapidly to prosperity, and was apparently already a considerable town at the time of Timoleon's expedition in 345 BC. It was the first place in Sicily where that leader landed, having eluded the vigilance of the Carthaginians, who were guarding the Straits of Messina, and crossed direct from Rhegium (modern Reggio di Calabria) to Tauromenium.
 
The city was at that time still under the government of Andromachus, whose mild and equitable administration is said to have presented a strong contrast with that of the despots and tyrants of the other Sicilian cities. He welcomed Timoleon with open arms, and afforded him a secure resting place until he was enabled to carry out his plans in other parts of Sicily.
 
The present town of Taormina occupies the ancient site, on a lofty hill which forms the last projecting point of the mountain ridge that extends along the coast from Cape Pelorus to this point.
 

Taormina's first important tourist was Johann Wolfgang Goethe who dedicated exalting pages to the city in his book entitled Italian Journey, but perhaps it was the German painter Otto Geleng’s views that made its beauty talked about throughout Europe and turned the site into a famous tourist center. The artist arrived in Sicily at the age of 20 in search of new subjects for his paintings. 

 

On his way through Taormina he was so enamored by the landscape that he decided to stop for part of the winter. Geleng began to paint everything that Taormina offered: ruins, sea, mountains, none of which were familiar to the rest of Europe. 

When his paintings were later exhibited in Berlin and Paris, many critics accused Geleng of having an ‘unbridled imagination’. At that, Geleng challenged them all to go to Taormina with him, promising that he would pay everyone's expenses if he were not telling the truth.

 

During the early 20th century the town became a colony of expatriate artists, writers, and intellectuals. D. H. Lawrence stayed here at the “Fontana Vecchia” from 1920 to 1922, and wrote a number of his poems, novels (probably including also Lady Chatterley's Lover), short stories, and essays, and a travel book. 

 

Thirty years later, from April 1950 through September 1951, the same villa was home to Truman Capote, who wrote of his stay in the essay "Fontana Vecchia." Charles Webster Leadbeater, the theosophical author, found out that Taormina had the right magnetics fields for Jiddu Krishnamurti to develop his talents, so the young Krishnamurti dwelt here from time to time. 

 

Halldór Laxness, the Icelandic author who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1955, worked here on the first modern Icelandic novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír. Between 1948 and 1999 the English writer Daphne Phelps lived in the Casa Cuseni designed and built by Robert Hawthorn Kitson in 1905, and entertained various friends including Bertrand Russell, Roald Dahl, and Tennessee Williams.

 

Taormina is home to one of the most famous Greek Theatres in the world. Here, in summertime the main events of the International Film, Music, Dance and Theatre Festival of Taormina Arte take place.

 

Along with the different dominations that conquered Sicily, many important monuments and buildings were built in Taormina by the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Swebians, the Normans, the Spanish, the French, and the entire XIX European aristocracy have all left their "footprints", in Taormina in the form of beautiful buildings, monuments, churches, villas, parks and castles.

 
Ancient Theatre of Taormina
 
The ancient theatre (the teatro greco, or "Greek theatre") is built for the most part of brick, and is therefore probably of Roman date, though the plan and arrangement are in accordance with those of Greek, rather than Roman, theatres; whence it is supposed that the present structure was rebuilt upon the foundations of an older theatre of the Greek period.
 
With a diameter of 120 metres (390 ft) (after an expansion in the 2nd century), this theatre is the second largest of its kind in Sicily (after that of Syracuse); it is frequently used for operatic and theatrical performances and for concerts.
 
The greater part of the original seats have disappeared, but the wall which surrounded the whole cavea is preserved, and the proscenium with the back wall of the scena and its appendages, of which only traces remain in most ancient theatres, are here preserved in singular integrity, and contribute much to the picturesque effect, as well as to the interest, of the ruin.
 
From the fragments of architectural decorations still extant we learn that it was of the Corinthian order, and richly ornamented. Some portions of a temple are also visible, converted into the church of San Pancrazio, but the edifice is of small size.

Tauromenium, built on Monte Tauro, was founded by Andromacus at the behest of Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse in 392BC. The first Punic War saw Taormina falling to the Romans in 212 BC and the town became a favorite holiday spot for Patricians and Senators, thus starting Taormina long history as a tourist resort.
 
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantines came only to be ousted by the Arabs in 962. They changed the name to Almoezia and set about introducing new agricultural practices (irrigation and citrus fruit farming) and other more cerebral pursuits such as philosophy, medicine and mathematics. Taormina continued to prosper both culturally and economically with the arrival of the Normans in 1079, who, under King Roger de Hautville, threw the Arabs out of Sicily.
 
After a brief period of Swabian rule, under Frederick II, Charles of Anjou was pronounced King of Sicily by the Pope. The people of Taormina refused to recognise this interloper as their king and, along with a great many other Sicilian towns, joined in the revolt against French rule during the Sicilian Vespers of 1282.
 
A hundred years of uncertainty followed before the Spanish took over affairs. Evidently impressed with Taormina, they chose Palazzo Corvaja as the seat of the Sicilian Parliament.
The rest, as they say, is storia.
 
Today, Taormina lives on tourism. Visitors flock from all over the world to see its Greek-Roman theatre, to amble along its perfectly preserved Mediaeval streets, to admire its dramatic views of Mount Etna and to immerse themselves in the archetypal Mediterranean atmosphere.
 
The main attraction is, without doubt, the theatre. Now home to all manner of events, including plays, fashion shows, concerts, and cinema festivals, the Teatro Greco, as its name suggests, started its life in the 3rd Century BC hosting performances of works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes.
 
Originally quite small, it was enlarged by the Romans to accommodate their own particular brand of theatrical extravaganza. The views from the theatre are spectacular, taking in a (usually) smoking Mount Etna and the Bay of Naxos down below.


Taormina is centred around its main thoroughfare, Corso Umberto I. At the beginning of this charming street is perhaps the greatest symbol of Taormina’s long varied history: Palazzo Corvaja. Its architecture is a sublime mix of Arab, Norman and Gothic and includes battlements, mullioned windows and shady courtyards.
 
The Arabs built the original tower as part of the town’s defences. Its cubic structure, which is typical of many Arab towers of this period, is thought to have evoked that of the Ka’aba in Mecca. In the 13th Century the tower was enlarged by the Normans who added a wing containing a hall and some wonderful artwork.
 
The Spanish followed suit, adding another wing at the beginning of the 15th Century to house the Sicilian Parliament. Its present name recalls one of the town’s most important noble families who owned the building from 1538 to 1945.
 
Taormina is served by its very own cable car which ferries tourists to and from the seaside resorts down along the coast. Extensive beaches, rocky coves, tiny islands (such as the famous Isola Bella) and sea stacks abound, making this enchanting coastline a firm favourite with Sicilians and visitors alike.