SicilianWorldHeritageSicilianWorldHeritageThe Sicilian patrimony made UNESCO World Heritage

Publisher REGIONE SICILIANA

ASSESSORATO REGIONALE DEL TURISMO,DELLE COMUNICAZIONI E DEI TRASPORTI

90141 Palermo - via E. Notarbartolo, 9Tel. +39 (0) 91 7078230/258/276

Fax +39 (0) 91 7078212www.regione.sicilia.it/turismo

e-mail: urp.dipturismo@regione.sicilia.it

PrintMediaCenter&Management - 2008 October

Regione Siciliana

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - UNESCOfounded in London on 16 November 1945 arose from the intention to contribute tothe maintenance of peace, respect for Human Rights and the equality of peoplesthrough the channels of Education, Science, Culture and Communication.

The World Heritage Convention to which there is correlated the World HeritageList -WHL was adopted during the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972. Currently 182 countries (as on 28 April 2006) adhere to the Convention, transfor-ming it into one of the biggest international legal instruments for the protection ofthe cultural and natural heritage.

According to the Convention, cultural heritage means a monument, a group ofbuildings or a site of historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnologicalor anthropological value. The natural heritage refers to important physical, biolo-gical and geological characteristics, as well as the habitats of endangered ani-mal and plant species and areas of particular scientific and aesthetic value.

Sicily, with The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento (1997), The Roman Villa ofCasale in Piazza Armerina (1997), The Aeolian Islands (2000), The Baroque Townsof the Val di Noto (2002), Syracuse and the Pantalica Rock Necropolis (2005), isamong the Italian regions with the biggest number of sites on the WHL.

Since 2003, the year of approval of the “Convention for the safeguarding of theimmaterial cultural heritage”, UNESCO has also set going projects to protect fivespheres of human activity: traditions and oral expressions, including language,seen as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage; entertainment arts; socialpractices, rites and feasts; knowledge and practices concerning nature and theuniverse; traditional craftsmanship. In Sicily recognition and inclusion in the WHL has gone to the tradition linked tothe Sicilian Puppet Theatre.

index

pag. 8

pag. 16

pag. 24

pag. 34

pag. 48

pag. 54

pag. 62

1 The Valley of Temples

2 Syracuse and the Pantalica rock necropolis

3 Aeolian Islands

4 The Val di Noto

5 The Roman Villa of Casale

6 Puppet theatre

Index of illustrations

Temple of Vulcano

Tem

pio

dei D

iosc

uri

Tem

ple

of T

hero

n

Tem

ple

of H

ercu

les

Temple of Zeus

Temple of Concordia

Temple of Aesculapius

Temple of Juno

Hellenistic-Romandistrict

Museum Oratory of Phalaris

The VALLEYof TEMPLES

Agrigento

cult

ural

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ony

9

The rediscovery of Akragas was set going towards the end of the eighteenth century, when the first European travellers came here.They ventured into Sicily discovering unexpected and immense artistic and archaeological riches, despite those who, like the com-pilers of the Encyclopaedia, thought that on the island there was nothing interesting, apart from the villainous activity of theinquisition. What the travellers observed more than two centuries ago is still offered today to the eyes of visitors, and their descrip-tions are in many respects still topical: the temples, today as then, are lined up on the crest of a hill, and are the most evident sym-bol of a city, once among the most powerful in the world, whose richness and beauty were sung of by the greatest poets of the 5thcentury. Indeed, that was the period of greatest splendour for Akragas, which was founded in 528 BC by settlers from Gela and inthe space of a century became one of the richest and most powerful cities in the Mediterranean, a cradle of arts and sciences, a citywhose citizens, according to the philosopher Empedocles' happy definition, lived as if they were going to die the next day andbuilt as if they were going to live for ever. Of this constructive fervour, the temples, built in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, are the most evident monumental expression, littleremaining, unfortunately, of the Greek city, destroyed by the Carthaginians in 406 BC. Agrigento, though enjoying other moments ofephemeral splendour, never again returned to the ancient splendours and gradually became a provincial town like so many others - if itwere not, precisely, for the temples. They afford an extraordinary sight, enchanting every visitor, especially at sunset, when the sinkingsun seems to set them on fire and really very little is required to return with the imagination to the splendid city sung of by Pindar.

Proclaimed World Heritage byUNESCO in 1997, they are in thevalley below the modern city,which maintains the medieval lay-out, constituting a remarkablearchaeological walk.To the right of the Golden Gate,toward the south and the sea, apath leads to the imposing ruinsof the Temple of Olympic Zeus,which (together with temple G atSelinunte), was the most imposingone in the west (the surface area isalmost 7000 square metres, biggerthan that of the Roman basilica ofSt. Peter's). Its construction wasundertaken in 480 BC and wascharacterized by the presence ofTelamons, huge statues abouteight metres high, which symbol-ized the force of nature subjugatedby Zeus. Among the columns sup-porting the entablature, they wereall destroyed except one, kept atthe Agrigento ArchaeologicalMuseum (among the ruins therelies a cast). Ruined because ofabandonment, bad weather and

earthquakes, in the eighteenthcentury it became a sort of stonequarry: Agrigento workmen usedthe gigantic tufa blocks for theconstruction of a dock at PortoEmpedocle. Near the temple therewas a gigantic altar for sacrifices,on which up to one hundred oxencould be sacrificed at one time,and there was room for two thou-sand believers to watch.Around the temple of Zeus thereis a big sacred area, constructed inthe 6th century BC and filled withbuildings for worship but also pri-vate residences and shops. Herethe temples proper are four butthe only one immediately distin-guishable from the non-religiousbuildings is the one referred to asthat of Castor and Pollux, fourcorner columns of which areextant, raised in 1836; it is a verypicturesque complex, so muchthat this temple is used as a sym-bol of Agrigento (480-460 BC). Ina depression to the north of thistemple there has been identified

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the Kolymbetra, a swimming pool thatwith its waters made it possible to irrigatethe most fertile garden in the valley. Thearea, entrusted to the ItalianEnvironmental Fund in 2001, has beenrestored from by the point of view ofvegetation and fitted out with explanatorypanels.In the opposite direction, on the ridge ofa low hill, three temples stand in a line.The Temple of Hercules is believed to bethe oldest (6th century BC); it has ninecolumns standing, on some of which thepurple plaster with which the temple waspainted is just visible. Further on in all its beauty there standsthe Temple of Concordia, one of themost perfect from the stylistic point ofview in the whole Greek world, “inex-pressibly beautiful and picturesque” (F.Münther). The temple, which is the best

preserved in the Greek world togetherwith the Theseion in Athens and thePosidonion at Paestum, owes its integrityto a fortunate circumstance: unlike theother pagan temples more or less demol-ished by the Christians, this was convert-ed into a church in the 6th century. Sothe structure remained intact and in 1748the temple, which was exquisitely built inthe 5th century in the Doric manner, wasrestored in its original forms (apart fromsome arches in the walls of the cell). The road of temples - flanked byChristian-Byzantine hypogea - goes tothe Temple of Hera Lacinia or Juno, atthe extremity of the ridge, in a charmingposition. Its look is like that of the tem-ple of Concordia: it was built more orless at the same time as the latter, and isa little smaller. On the walls of the cellyou can still remarkably see traces of the

fire that was started in the building bythe Carthaginians in 406, during the sackof Akragas. East of the temple, theremains of the usual altar for sacrificesare found and a stretch of street deeplyfurrowed by carts.If these are the essential stages of thevisit, there are also a great many otherremains of the ancient city to be seen:from the Temple of Aesculapius to thetomb of Theron and the Hellenistic-Roman district with the oratory ofPhalaris, the ekklesiasterion and thebouleuterion, and finally the interestingArchaeological Museum at which pre-cious items from Akragas are kept, likethe lion's head gutters that adornedsome of the temples to the splendidlypainted vases, but also panels and mod-els that give a more precise idea of thecity and its monuments.

Akragas

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Girgenti (...) affords the most stupendous set of temples that one could ever admire. On the crest of a long ridge,

stony, entirely bare and red, a burning red, without a blade of grass, without a bush and with the sea,

the beach and the harbour dominant, three superb temples are delineated that, seen from below, stand out with their enormous out-

lines of stone against the blue sky of warm countries. They seem to be built in the air, amid a magnificent and desolate landscape.

Guy de Maupassant Sicily

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Beyond the hill of Minerva, you reach that line of temples that are at the southern edge of the walls of the city. The sight of them

against the background of the Libyan sea, when the ardent sun illuminates their yellow stones and makes the powerful columns

shine, still today is enchanting; and it makes you think how stupendous it must have been in antiquity.

Ferdinando Gregorovius Walks through Italy

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The telamon is here, two steps

away from Hades (sultry, immobile murmur)

lying in the garden of Zeus and crumbles

its stone with the patience of a worm

of the air: here there is joint upon joint

amid eternal trees for a single seed.

Salvatore Quasimodo Temple of Zeus at Agrigento

SYRACUSE and thePantalica rock necropolisSyracuse

cult

ural

pat

rim

ony

Neapolis

ArchaeologicalMuseum“P. Orsi”

Fonte Aretusa

Maniace Castle

P.zza Duomo

Temple of Apollo

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Syracuseand the Pantalica rock

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Certainly there are monuments, from differentepochs and in different styles, bearing witness to aglorious past, attempts being made to recover thememory of it and respect for it. But also sea, clearand rich in flora and fauna, luxuriant papyri, moreand more intense cultural life, craft activities andartists' studios, and gastronomy. There are so manythings that are interesting about Syracuse, the lastplace, chronologically, to be declared World Heritageby UNESCO. This is undoubtedly a recognition ofthe historical prestige of this city that for a long timewas one of the capitals of the Mediterranean. But itis also a recognition of its determination to onceagain play a major role in the Mediterranean today,also, indeed above all, through the recovery and val-orisation of the signs of the past. Which means notonly Magna Graecia, but also Swabian and Baroque,art nouveau and modern architectures.A ferment of rebirth is running through Ortygia, theoldest part of the city, where prehistoric peoples set-tled well before the Greeks. On this islet that, at thecentre of the water on which the city looks out, wasonce the stronghold of the tyrant Dionysius I, one ofthe most important characters in ancient Sicilianhistory, roads, piazzas, houses, churches and build-ings are being restructured, transformed and openedto the public, and hotels, pubs, eating and drinkingplaces of every kind are multiplying. All this is for a night life that is a worthy conclusionto a day spent visiting monuments: the Neapolis,with the imposing Greek theatre where every yearclassical performances are done, the altar of Hiero,the latomias with the famous “Dionysius' Ear.” Thenthere is the area of the Epipolis, with the little SanGiovanni Evangelista church, over an immense net-work of palaeo-Christian catacombs, and the modernsanctuary devoted to the miraculous Madonna ofTears. There are the museums, including the archae-ological one, the biggest in Sicily and one of themost important in Italy, and the Regional Gallery, atwhich there are authentic treasures like theAnnunciation by Antonello da Messina and the Burialof Saint Lucy by Caravaggio.

necropolis

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And last but not least there is Ortygia, with irregu-lar little medieval streets gathered around the ele-gant cathedral square, one of the most beautiful inItaly, all surrounded by splendid buildings anddominated by the cathedral, whose Baroque façadehides the structure of an ancient Greek temple.Here the cult of the virgin martyr St. Lucy, thehighly venerated patron saint, replaced that of thegoddess Athena, and the traces of the ancient archi-tecture are placed side by side with the more mod-ern architecture in splendid syncretism. On the isletone walks very slowly, looking up to admire thestone volutes and the wrought iron balconies of theBaroque buildings, but also allowing the gaze towander on the sea, which appears every now andthen, sparkling like a mirror. One visits ManiaceCastle and the Jewish miqwe (tubs for purificationbaths), the oldest in Europe, and one halts at thespring of Arethusa, which according to legend is anymph who was turned into a spring to escape tooardent a suitor. One goes shopping and one stopsfor lunch, an ice cream or a snack. One can also goswimming, taking advantage of the little flights ofsteps that go down to the surface of the sea fromthe bastions, the sea now being clean thanks to thesewerage having been redone, and one sunbathescomfortably stretched out on the solariums reachingout over the sea. From Ortygia one can set out in awooden fishing boat to go to visit the caves on theMaddalena peninsula, whose extremity for sometime now has been protected through thePlemmirio marine reserve; here you can go scubadiving or snorkelling to discover splendid seabeds.Not far away there are the boats that go up the riverCiane, a pleasant and relaxing trip, but also one ofgreat botanical interest, allowing you to observe theonly wild colony of papyruses in Europe, as thesegrow along the banks of this river.

From Syracuse you can also get to another impor-tant place which was declared World Heritage in2005: the Pantalica necropolis. This is a place ofwild beauty, at the confluence of the rivers Anapoand the Calcinara, which in addition to the archaeo-logical interest is also interesting in terms of natureand landscape thanks to the richness and variety ofthe plant and animal species that live on the banksof the watercourse. Here the rocky bastion ofPantalica rises high over the deep valley hewn out bythe water, in the shade of plane trees and oleanders,in its millennial flow. Here in the stone, the Siculi,the prehistoric people that lived in Sicily before theadvent of Greek colonization, dug out almost fivethousand graves. It is not known for certain howthey succeeded in doing so, since in the Bronze Age,from which the necropolis dates, the Siculi did notknow iron, and therefore they had to use axes orancient systems that combined water and fire. Theworkers were suspended in the air, tied to ropes bythe waist, or astride a beam, on tottering scaffolding.The corpses, in turn, were pulled up or lowered withropes, “a grisly spectacle seen from afar and from theopposite slopes” (Paolo Orsi).With the passing of the centuries, the gravesbecame a refuge for persecuted Christians, a her-mitage and then a residence for Arabs and Norman.Then, gradually, the site was abandoned.A mysterious people remained, that of the Siculi,swallowed up by the history of other much moredaring and therefore more famous people. But thePantalica graves, though mute, hand down thememory of them, together with the scattered ruinsof the mysterious Anaktoron, the prince's palace, aperfect geometry of walls of stone whose splendoursthe imagination can only guess at. This is all that isleft of a city that must have existed, and who knowswhat it was like.

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And so on the sea there appears the white castle and its opposite cape of the island. It was the Greek, Arabic, Norman and Spanish

Syracuse. There opens up the incomparable gulf on which the city rests easy and glorious, and around it there are the harmo-

nious hills that seem to remember when in the theatres the hymns and odes of the good poets of the motherland were delivered

to the opulent settlers.

Riccardo Bacchelli The tuna knows

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O beautiful daughter of haughty cities

powerful Syracuse

temple to the lord of bellicose hosts.

O divine nurse of generous minds…

Pindaro 1 st Pythic Ode

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Along these roads Venus seeking her son Cupid roamed / and calling said everywhere / To anyone who can tell me of Cupid who

fled from me / I will give a kiss as a reward / and to anyone so bold as to bring him back to me I promise / and swear that much

more will I give than a pure kiss. / He has such signs of a child, and such tools / that on his first appearance they will be evident.

Moschus of Syracuse Love the Runaway

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Stromboli

Panarea

Vulcano

Lipari

SalinaFilicudi

Alicudi

AEOLIANISLANDSMessina

natu

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In winter, to the traveller going along the sinuous coast roadthat flanks the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Aeolian Islands (whichbecame World Heritage in 2000) appear in the motionless andclear air like certain drawings by children, with the outlines ofthe islands floating between sea and turquoise sky. On warmdays, instead, when haze settles on the horizon, the uncertainblue outlines of the islands look like those of an ancient fleetthat has run aground, hopefully awaiting rescue. But in eitherseason, they accompany the traveller for long stretches, and itis difficult to resist their call, as if new sirens intoned theirbewitching songs from the coasts that seem so near. The Aeolians are almost magic islands, and fabulous ones: theancient Greeks, fascinated by their changing appearance -indeed, they appear and disappear according to the whim ofthe clouds and the winds, changing their colour and, it wouldseem, even their positions - set more than one of their mythshere. It is not difficult to understand this even today, thoughour souls are now accustomed to every form of technology,from the moment when you reach Vulcano, the first landingplace of the sailor coming from the Sicilian coasts. With itsdark look and the smell of sulphur floating around, it mightseem indeed like the antechamber of hell... and in somerespects it was hell, for the hosts of damned that, up to the endof the nineteenth century, were forced in a state of inhumanimprisonment to extract sulphur and alum from the bowels ofthe earth. Today of those poor wretches only the memoryremains, and the island is instead a destination of tourists andvulcanologists. The former come in search of the emotion of abath in the heated by the volcano (which has therapeutic valid-ity for the treatment of some skin diseases) and of an ascent tothe volcano cloaked in dust and sulphur crystals; the latter areattracted by the possibility of observing and studying volcanicphenomena close up, the only trace, at least for the time being,of eruptive activity that provoked huge cataclysms in the past,described by historians from the epoch of Pliny the Elder onwith abundance of dreadful details. It was really an eruption that detached Vulcano from its neigh-bour Lipari, the pulsating heart of the archipelago, its capitalsince the most remote epochs, when the islands were at thecentre of the flourishing trade in obsidian, the volcanic glasssought even in the most distant lands in the Mediterranean forits properties: it was not only a very sharp stone, but it also hada reputation for being thaumaturgic, magic.

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The village is all around two landingplaces and in it there is the AeolianArchaeological Museum, one of themost important in Italy, set in the areaof the castle, the fortified zone wherethe successive inhabitants of the islandsettled. In addition to finds testifying tothe ancient history of the archipelago,the museum also has a vulcanologicalsection in which the particular geologyof the islands is illustrated. After a visitto the museum you can visit the churchdedicated to the patron saint, St.Bartholomew, which has a beautifulceiling; you can also see the excavationsthat have brought to light residencesfrom different epochs, some prehistoric,and look out from the belvedere nearthe theatre, to enjoy the magnificentpanorama of Marina Corta, the pictur-esque harbour that is one of the heartsof social life on Lipari. After you get back onto the sea a mustis to sail round the island, which willallow sailors to admire caves, little baysand cliffs, before setting off for Salina,the next stage. Dominated by the mas-sive shape of two mountains, this islandis known as “the green one” because ofthe quantity of vegetation that covers it,

and in effect its two main products arelinked to nature: capers and Malvasia, asweet liqueur known since antiquity.On Salina you can visit the village ofPollara, with a beach at the foot of aCyclopic sheer part, and you can lookfor traces of Massimo Troisi, who heremade Il Postino, his last film. The archi-pelago, besides, can boast of a long cin-ema history: on Stromboli, for instance,Roberto Rossellini made his filmStromboli with Ingrid Bergman, givingthe public black and bare images of theisland. It is nothing but the peak of ahuge submarine volcano, whose activity,documented since the remotest times,never ceases, so much so that eruptions,at almost regular intervals of 15-20 min-utes, even acted as a lighthouse for peo-ple who crossed the low Tyrrhenian.Today nighttime excursions are organ-ized to see the eruptions reddeningagainst the black velvet of the sky. Now we must speak of Panarea, a pic-turesque mix of sea, archaeology andsocial life. This island for some yearshas been distinguished by exclusivetourism, being preferred by the best-known members of the international jetset. Near Punta Milazzese there is one

of the prehistoric villages that are mostimportant for the history of the archi-pelago, but also the splendid CalaJunco, one of the most beautiful in theAeolian Islands. And we must alsospeak of the two most secluded andsolitary sisters, Alicudi and Filicudi.The former, more to the west, is not anisland for everybody: you need onlyknow that there is not even one roadbut only paths up which you climb onfoot or on a mule's back. The houses are few and tiny, concen-trated in the western part, and it is onlyfor a few years that they have had elec-tric energy. Filicudi is also very distantfrom mass tourism, although less wildthan its neighbour. A must is a bathe inthe gigantic Sea Ox cave, as well asexcursions to the Perciato and theCanna spit, a basaltic rock-stack thatrises over seventy metres from the sur-face of the sea. And as we are talking about islands andsea, your luggage must include a maskand nozzle: in this way even less expertpeople can explore the magnificentseabeds, observing on the water's sur-face Gorgonia grasslands and the rapidflashes of every sort of fish.

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And we reached the Aeolian Islands; here there was

Aeolus… dear to the immortal gods / … /

and a whole month he kept me with him, he asked me every thing

But when I asked to return home and implored

to be allowed to leave, he did not say no, he prepared my departure.

Homer Odyssey

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Immersed in the enchanting sea of Sicily, these small islands captured my soul in an unusual way, whether they appeared to me

during tempestuous gusts or whether I contemplated them dotted with vineyards in the summer, resembling emeralds in a sea of

sapphires.

Luigi Salvatore d’Austria The Lipari Islands

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“...I confess that this night is one of the most curious that I

have spent in my life... I could not break away from that terri-

ble and magnificent spectacle.”

Alexandre Dumas Stromboli, from Trip to Sicily

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This Sicily bathed by the laughing and singing waves of the Tyrrhenian Sea, from whose breast in a semicircle, like a protecting

shelter, the garland of the Aeolian Islands, starting from the great cone of Stromboli, rises in the eastern part, as far as the thin

contours of Salina and Alicudi, which fade into the distant fog.

Augusto Schneegans Sicily in nature, history and life

The VALdi NOTOCatania

CaltagironeMilitello Val di CataniaPalazzolo AcreideNotoRagusa IblaModicaScicli

mon

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tal p

atri

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y

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The earthquake of 11 January 1693 wasone of the most catastrophic events inItaly in historic times. The earthquake - towhich experts today assign an intensityequal to the eleventh degree of theMercalli scale - destroyed an area of hun-dreds and hundreds of square kilometres:practically all south-eastern Sicily.Yet, despite death and desolation, neverhas it been truer than in this case that “it'san ill wind that blows nobody good”: thereconstruction, undertaken with heroicfervour, gave rise to what is now definedas the “Val di Noto Baroque”, an ines-timable patrimony of art and architecturethat in 2001 UNESCO proclaimed WorldHeritage.The towns and villages chosen to make upthis treasure are eight in number: Cataniaand, in its province, Caltagirone andMilitello Val di Catania; Ragusa withModica and Scicli; Palazzolo Acreide andNoto, in Syracuse province.Catania may not be the most beautifulSicilian city, but certainly it has a splen-dour of its own, in addition to an environ-ment of great vivacity, joyfully rediscov-

ered by young people, artists and culturalpersonalities. Here you can admire theline of churches and monastic buildingsin Via dei Crociferi, the gigantic SanNicola church and the refined backdropsof Piazza Duomo, with the building of thetown hall, the seminary and the Elephantand Amenano fountains framing theCathedral, dedicated to the belovedpatron saint, St. Agatha, and the sumptu-ous Benedictine monastery, which hasnothing to envy a royal castle. TheBenedictines were also among the protag-onists of the reconstruction, as can beseen at Militello Val di Catania, a townthat, in spite of its limited size, can boastof a quantity of Baroque buildings ofmerit: from the monastery, precisely, thatreprises the structure of the one inCatania, with the attached San Benedettochurch, to the buildings of the nobility -including Palazzo Baldanza-Denaro andPalazzo Liggieri - and a large number ofsacred buildings like the cathedral church,the Madonna della Catena church and theSanctuary of Santa Maria La Stella. In Catania province we also find

Caltagirone, well known for ceramics pro-duction since remote times. The quality ofthe production can be observed more orless everywhere, in the municipal park ason the risers of the monumental flight ofsteps of Santa Maria del Monte, whichsince 1608 has connected the lower andupper parts of the town. This is one of thebest-known attractions in Caltagirone, andalso the protagonist of numerous eventslike the flower procession in May, and thenight-time illumination with coloured oillamps in July. Below it there is theBaroque San Giuseppe church, but alsoworth seeing is the beautiful San Giacomochurch, with an original bell tower on topof which there sit the four evangelists, St.Claire and the Most Holy Saviour. The other provincial capital, Ragusa, inaddition to a profusion of churches -including the beautiful San GiorgioCathedral, at the extremity of the oblongplaza in the heart of the Ibla district - alsohas quite a big quantity of noble man-sions. With curious harmony, the newBaroque buildings done at the behest ofthe local aristocracy were grafted onto a

street texture that was still markedlymedieval, creating that authentic jewelthat is Ibla. Walking around looking up,the visitor will discover decorations withoverflowing pomp, for instance on PalazzoCosentini and Palazzo La Rocca. Not far from Ragusa we meet theenchanting Modica, a town with ancienthistory and prestige, the chief place in acounty that once was considered a king-dom in the kingdom, because of thewealth and influence of its seignior. Here the most famous monument is cer-tainly the big San Giorgio church, with along flight of two hundred and fifty stepspreceding a high façade, as if it wanted tochallenge the sky. San Giorgio is one ofthe most beautiful Baroque works insouthern Italy, but there are other splen-did churches in the town, like the beauti-ful San Pietro, Santa Maria di Betlem(inside which there is a the magnificentsixteenth-century Sacrament Chapel), andSan Nicolò inferiore. There is also thebirthplace of Salvatore Quasimodo, towhom a literary park is dedicated. A narrow little road goes down from here

toward Scicli, allowing itself, at the end ofa straight road along which there are thedry-stone walls typical of the Iblei coun-tryside, big bends as far as the village. Ifyou arrive in the evening, the houses, thechurch and the buildings appear to beilluminated by warm gilded light, acharming spectacle preluding so manydecorations in stone on the buildings.There are flowers, carvings and geome-tries, but also grotesque representationslike the two Moors' heads supporting thecoat of arms of the owners on a corner-stone of Palazzo Beneventano, one of themost beautiful. Not to mention PalazzoFava, the long succession of churches andpalazzos in Via Mormino Penna, and theCarmelite church and monastery.Churches and monastic buildings areextremely well represented at Noto, whichhas always been considered the “capital”of the Baroque. They go from theSalvatore monastery to the Cathedral, animposing and elegant building that at last,after laborious restoration, will reopen tobelievers and visitors in the spring of2006. Then there is the San Domenico

church, one of the most important, itsfaçade framed by the palm trees in a neatlittle garden, and San Carlo. Then wehave Palazzo Ducezio, which is the townhall, and Palazzo Villadorata, an old andvery beautiful abode with a long façadeadorned with balconies supported by dec-orated stone brackets, which dominates awhole street and in May acts as a back-drop to the preparation of a flowery sce-nario. Palazzolo Acreide is the last stage -but certainly not the least important - ofour itinerary. Here there are a lot of richlyadorned palazzos: they include the abodeof Baron Gabriele Judica, who made him-self poor in his efforts to bring to light theremains of ancient Akrai, as well asPalazzo Zacco and Palazzo Ferla. And thechurches are very beautiful: SanSebastiano, in the piazza of the town hall,and that of the rival saint Paul, bothenchanting Baroque buildings, and theAnnunziata, with a stately portal of twistedcolumns around which turgid auguralvine-branches wind.

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Ibla is a town that in a word recites with two voices. Sometimes from an eloquent podium, more often whispering, slyly, as befits a land

that wears its baroque with the reserve of an ancient lady…

Gesualdo Bufalino Lost Waxes

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Noto is unique, among Sicilian Baroque towns, because of two characteristics: the regularity of the planimetry and the beauty

of the stone, soft enough to allow elaborate cuts; you can also leave it bare so as to give free scope to the manifold language

of the matter.

Anthony Blunt Sicilian baroque

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And anyone coming there from inland places suddenly finds it at his or her feet, festive with heaped-up roofs, thieving magpies and ringing of

bells; while anyone coming there from the not very distant shore perceives it nesting with ten thousand black windows in line with the whole

height of the mountain, among serpentine wisps of smoke and here and there the shine of an open or closed pane, of a sudden, against the sun.

Elio Vittorini Scicli, from Towns of the world

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I was young and happy one summer, in fifty-one... And perhaps it was by grace of the place where I lived, a village shaped like a bro-

ken pomegranate; near the sea but countrified; half clinging to a spur of rock, half scattered at its feet; with so many flights of steps

between the two halves, to serve as peacemakers, and clouds in the sky from one bell tower to the other, breathless as in relay races

of the Troopers of the King.

Gesualdo Bufalino Modica, from Argo the blind

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The colour of this town is black (...) black is the lava stone which the houses are made of, so that the old palazzos and the convents

look as if they were bunkers. Houses made with the flesh of Mongibello, and so he looks at them from afar like property that is

legitimately his, left to the people down there only in life tenancy.

Rodolfo De Mattei Catania, from Secret Island

48

The VILLAof CASALEPiazza

Armerina

cult

ural

pat

rim

ony

Big Peristyle

Big roomwith apse

rooms

C o r t i l e

C o r t i l e

Fr ig idar ium

Calidaria

Praefurnia

Tepi

dariu

m

V e s t i b u l eS a l o

n

room

monumentalentrance

Am

bula

tory

wit

h bi

g hu

ntin

g sc

ene

rooms

Atrium

Cistern

Room with apse

Elliptical peristyle Triclinium

49

50

51

The Female gymnasts (which everyone,because of their modern “two-piece”attire, refers to as the “bikini girls”) areperhaps the most famous, but the Greathunt, with its profusion of wild animalsand hunters, is not inferior.Polyphemus appears vigorous and fier-ce, while the young woman of theErotic scene that adorns the floor of acubicle in the private apartments issensual and mischievous. These are themosaics of the Roman Villa of Casale atPiazza Armerina, one of the most pre-cious and famous Roman treasures inSicily, proclaimed World Heritage byUNESCO in 1996. The first explorations were made inthis area towards the end of the 19thcentury, but it was only in the 1930sthat systematic exploration of the areabegan, while the most important exca-vations were made between 1950 and1960. Before the amazed eyes of thearchaeologists, three big groups ofrooms emerged, connected by galleriesand courtyards - a villa of stupefyingsplendour, with private thermal baths,

complete with all appurtenances. And,what is even more extraordinary, therewere hundreds of square metres ofmosaics. There was a mosaic cycle ofexcellent quality, preserved intact by athick covering of mud that had buriedthem during a flood. This was a cata-strophic natural event that had com-pleted the destruction by man at thevilla, but had left the mosaics intact, sothat were delivered once again, afterseven centuries of oblivion, to ouradmiring eyes.The villa was built between the 3rd and4th centuries AD, in the heart of a vastand fertile agricultural estate near thestatio philosophiana, a very importantstation on the road that connected theeastern coast with the southern coast ofthe island. It belonged to an unknownpersonage of the Roman aristocracy,who according to some historiansmight even have been related to theimperial family, a personage of whomall we know for certain is that he wasvery rich and that he loved to surroundhimself with luxury. This is testified to,

in the absence of the furnishings andfrescoes that indubitably must havecovered the walls, now demolished, bythe mosaics, an uninterrupted mosaiccovering of inestimable artistic andscientific value, with scenes of hunting,private life, mythological characters andgeometric decorations. The decorationswere done with all probability byAfrican craftsmen, who infused greatvitality and vigour in their work, crea-ting one of the most important works ofRoman art that has come down to us.An incomparable testimony not only tothe magnificence of the empire, butalso a graphic representation of the lifeand customs of a people: from huntingtechniques, an activity to which there isdevoted the stately mosaic that adornsthe ambulatory that gave access to thebig room for audiences, to sports, fromthe activities of every day like a visit tothe baths, to those linked to agriculture,for instance the harvest, which then, astoday, was among the economic activi-ties of the Sicilian countryside.

52

53

(...) In this vast overview of a big game hunt, the most important of the composi-

tions that have come to light through excavations, you see riders hurling themsel-

ves in various directions, carts pulled by oxen with cages to contain the beasts

captured alive in traps and a big number of tigers, lions, antelopes, gazelles and

hippos. The animals are rendered with great spirit (...)

Bernard Berenson Diary pages - Journey in Sicily

55

The ART ofANIMATING THINGS

puppet theatre

imm

ater

ial p

atri

mon

y

56

The Paladins are actual idols, a great deal more than Coppi or Bartali, we are glad of their victories, we cry at their death.

Carlo Levi Words are stones

Once, and it was not so long ago, thePuppet Theatre was a daily show for theSicilians. One evening after the other,people gathered at the little theatre tofollow the stories of Orlando, Rinaldo,Bradamante and Angelica, siding withone or the other and hitting out at thebaddies.Today the place of those little theatreshas been taken by TV and other forms ofentertainment, but the puppets preservetheir charm, and even though there arefew puppeteers their shows do not fail toattract attention and curiosity. This isprobably because thanks to theirabsolutely original stylistic and figurativestructure the Sicilian puppets succeed inrepresenting in an excellent way the epicand chivalrous spirit, values that, in spiteof all technology, still belong to Sicilianculture. Because of the extraordinary culturalrichness of the Opra, in 2001 it wasplaced on UNESCO's list of ImmaterialHeritages of Humanity, a recognition thatsets this traditional art form alongsideother artistic expressions from all over

the world, all characterized by strongspecificities. The Opra dei Pupi, as a representation ofthe clashes between the knights ofCharlemagne and the "wicked" Moors,came into being in the second half of thenineteenth century: the chivalrous mari-onettes, with their typical characters,served to represent the thirst for justiceof the less fortunate social classes. At thesame time, epic stories were narrated bythe cuntisti, itinerant balladeers that dayafter day performed in front of a publicof fond listeners. The fortune of thegenre is also strongly linked to its prox-imity to certain codes of behaviour root-ed in the Sicilians, from the sense ofhonour to the struggle for justice, valuesthat, though in the simple form of theOpra, were transmitted and consolidatedin theatrical narration. The stories were mainly based on chival-rous subjects, first of all the Chansons deGeste, but there were also other themes,from that of bandits to the stories -strongly tied to Catania - of the aristo-cratic Uzeda family. Today, alongside

these subjects there are also other morefanciful ones, for instance Greek myths,which are represented at a little theatrein Syracuse.Each family of puppeteers has its ownpreferences and traditions, its own tech-niques for manoeuvring the puppets(which vary a great deal in size, dependingon the area of Sicily), scenery and back-drops, which are painted by hand, reli-giously guarded and handed down. Themaking of the marionettes and the differ-ent components of the scenery are also aform of art in themselves, with particularspecialization, tricks and skills. Each pup-pet must be strongly characterized.Today, besides the puppeteers still activeon the island, there are also some muse-ums that preserve the old tradition of theOpra: among them there is the bigMarionette Museum in Palermo (MiMa),the Museum of Sicilian Puppets inCaltagirone and the Museum of thePuppet Theatre at Sortino. At some ofthese museums there are also short andsimple performances for a first experi-ence of this particular theatrical form.

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60

61

What this show offers us that is most beautiful is not so much its heroes as its angels (...) these hovering beings that waver at the

extremity of a thread, held suspended, one would say, by the hand of God (...)

Marguerite Yourcenar Pilgrim and foreigner

62

page 3 from left, Agrigento, Valley of Temples, Temple of Concordia (ph H.Carstensen) - Noto, Palazzo Nicolaci (ph A. Tornambé) - Sicilian puppets(ph Hanne Carstensen); page 4 Syracuse, Neapolis, Greek theatre (ph M. Minnella); page 5 from left, Aeolian Islands (ph M. Minnella) - Roman Villa ofCasale (ph H. Carstensen); pages 8-9 Valley of Temples, Temple of Castor and Pollux (ph H.Carstensen) - map of the Valley of Temples; page 10 Agrigento, Museum Archaeological, Greek vase (ph H. Carstensen);page 11 Agrigento, Valley of Temples, Telamon (ph H. Carstensen); page 12 Agrigento, Valley of Temples, Temple of Castor and Pollux (phH. Carstensen); page 13 Agrigento, Valley of Temples, Temple of Concordia (ph H. Carstensen);page 14 Agrigento, Valley of Temples, Hellenistic-Roman,Ekklesiasterion and Oratory of Phalaris (ph H. Carstensen); page 15 Agrigento, Valley of Temples, Temple of Hercules (ph H. Carstensen);pages 16-17 Syracuse, aerial view of Ortygia, (ph F.lli Marino) - map of the town;page 18 Syracuse, Neapolis, Latomia del Paradiso, Dionysius' Ear (phH. Carstensen); page 20 Syracuse, Ortygia, Piazza Duomo (ph Melo Minnella); page 21 Syracuse, Neapolis, Roman gymnasium (ph M. Minnella); page 22 Siracusa, Neapolis, amphitheatre (ph M. Minnella); page 23 Pantalica, the river Anapo and the Necropolis (ph A. Tornambé);pages 24-25 Aeolian Islands, Salina, Lingua coast (Daguerreotype) -map of the islands; page 26 Aeolian Islands, Stromboli (ph M. Minnella); page 28 Aeolian Islands, Lipari, view of Vulcano (ph M. Minnella); page 29 Aeolian Islands, Vulcano, crater (ph M. Minnella); page 30 Aeolian Islands, fishermen (ph P. Scafidi); page 31 Aeolian Islands, seabed off Panarea (Archivio AAPIT Palermo); page 32 Aeolian Islands, Stromboli, inland area (ph M. Minnella);

page 33 Aeolian Islands, off Filicudi (ph M. Minnella); page 34-35 Catania, Piazza Duomo, feast of St. Agatha (ph M. Minnella) -map of the Three Valleys; page 36 from left, Catania, Palazzo Biscari (ph M. Minnella) - Caltagirone ceramics; page 37 Scicli, Palazzo Beneventano (ph S. Todaro);page 38 Militello Val di Catania, San Nicolò-Santissimo Salvatorechurch (ph H. Carstensen); page 39 Caltagirone, Santa Maria del Monte stairs (ph D. Karsten); page 40 big photo, Noto, San Carlo church (ph M. Minnella) - fromtop, Noto, Palazzo Nicolaci (ph H. Carstensen), Noto, Cathedral (ph G.Gambino), Ragusa Ibla, Santa Maria delle Scale church (ph G. Leone); page 41 Palazzolo Acreide, Annunziata church (ph H. Carstensen);page 42 Ragusa Ibla, San Giorgio church (ph M. Minnella); page 43 Scicli, Palazzo Beneventano (ph S. Todaro); page 44 big photo, Modica, San Giorgio church (ph M. Minnella) -from top, Modica, San Pietro church (ph G. Leone) - Ragusa Ibla, view; page 45 Scicli, San Matteo church (ph S. Todaro); page 46 Catania, Palazzo Biscari (ph H. Carstensen); page 47 Catania, Piazza Duomo (ph M. Minnella); pages 48-49 Piazza Armerina, Roman Villa of Casale (ph P. Scafidi) -plan of the villa; page 50 Piazza Armerina, Roman Villa of Casale (ph H. Carstensen); page 51 Piazza Armerina, Roman Villa of Casale (A. Garozzo); pages 52-53 Piazza Armerina, Roman Villa of Casale (ph H. Carstensen);pages 54-55 Puppet theatre (ph H. Carstensen) - illustrations byMariano Brusca;page 56 marionettes being created by TEATRO-ARTE CUTICCHIO -Cefalù (ph M. Brusca); pages 58-59 scenographic backdrop (ph H. Carstensen); page 60 marionettes by TEATRO-ARTE CUTICCHIO - Cefalù (ph M. Brusca);page 61 the puppets (ph G. Leone).

Index of illustrations

The sites listed below, explored by the present brochures,

have been recovered, restored and re-qualified through

measure 2.01 of POR Sicilia 2000-2006 “Recovery and use of the cultural and

environmental patrimony” coming under the Regional Ministry for the

Cultural and Environmental Heritage and Education - Department for

the Cultural and Environmental Heritage.

1. Agrigento - Valley of Temples.

2. Piazza Armerina (Enna province) - Roman Villa of Casale.

3. Val di Noto - Catania (Catania province), Caltagirone (Catania province),

Ragusa Ibla (Ragusa province), Noto (Syracuse province) - various sites;

Militello Val di Catania (Catania province) - former San Domenico church;

Modica (Ragusa province) - Cava d’Ispica Archaeological Park;

Scicli (Ragusa province) - Colle San Matteo Museum Park.

4. Siracusa (Syracuse province) - various sites.

For regional transports visit the website:www.regione.sicilia.it/turismo/trasporti

For urban transport services, visit the websites of the single councils

For museums and archaeological sites, visit the website:www.regione.sicilia.it/beniculturali

Intervento finanziato dall’Unione Europeamisura 4.18.a/b POR Sicilia 2000/2006 – FESR.

Free copy - Assessorato Turismo, Trasporti e Comunicazioni