During the night of January 14 and 15, 1968 through early February 1968 western Sicily’s Belice Valley experienced a series of earthquakes. It was before the Richter Scale was employed to measure tremors in Italy, so it’s hard to say in those terms how strong they were but know this: it was many seismic events occurring on an Extreme level, one after another for many days. The center of the quake was in Gibellina, a town that was totally flattened and, upon rebuilding, was moved to a different location, 12 miles from its original position. Other towns affected in the Belice Valley include Santa Margherita di Belice, Santa Ninfa, Partanna, Salaparuta, Poggioreale, Montevago, and Salemi, to name a few.

To breathe life into the region and raise it from the rubble, a movement emerged to make the Valle del Belice a frontier of contemporary art and architecture. The results are almost 60 open-air works of art spread throughout the town of Gibellina Nuova and surrounding communities. For example, the Museo d’Arte contemporanea Ludovico Corrao has a collection of nearly 2,000 pieces by Italian and foreign artists. The Fondazione Orestiadi Museo delle Trame Mediterranee features both contemporary art and performances of new music, theater, and performance art. At the site of Gibellina Vecchia, a stunning exhibition of 8,000 square meters of concrete transformed the ruins of the old town. Grande Cretto or il Cretto by Alberto Burri was completed in 2015. It was 30 years in the making.

Pictured here is the Mother Church of Gibellina Nuova that was designed in 1972 by architect and urban planner Ludovico Quaroni. A giant sphere, according to the website Architectuul, it is meant to look like a spaceship, intending to remind us to embrace equally all creeds and religions because we have so much still to discover outside our own planet. I visited it last spring for the first time and I was moved by its scope and energy. For art lovers, seeing it in person (along with il Cretto by Burri and more) is remarkable.

For our Concierge Design and Support Service clients with an interest in contemporary art, we often plan a full-day’s itinerary of the Belice Valley with an English-speaking art historian who is an expert of these works. Learn more about this service at link in bio or at https://experiencesicily.com/custom-travel-planning-for-sicily/.