Category: History
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #9. Pinch-me Moments At Valley Of The Temples
At the end of the 6th century CE, it was consecrated by the Christian Church — an effort to clean it of pagan demons — in the name of Saints Peter and Paul, transforming the sacred structure into a Byzantine-style basilica. In the mid-18th century, all signs of the church were removed in order to…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #6. Royal Fairytales Are Real
Housed in the treasury of Palermo’s Cathedral, this work of art was created between 1220 and 1222. It was designed in Palermo in a Byzantine-Arab style and composed of gold, precious gems, semi-precious stones, pearls, filigree, glazes, and silver. According to scholar Jacqueline Alio, the Holy Roman Empress was interred wearing the crown. “It has…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #5. Be Surprised By Jewish History
During the last 25 years, locals and scholars have begun to uncover what was lost (expelled, really) more than 500 years ago. One of the most extraordinary discoveries was a mikveh, a Jewish ritual bathhouse, excavated one bucket of mud at a time by Amalia Daniele di Bagni and the association Siracusa III Millennio. Pictured…
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52 Reasons To Love Sicily | #2. Take The Train
(Pictured: The duomo of Cefalù, one of the UNESCO sites of the Arab-Norman Patrimony of Sicily.) Cefalù, Palermo Province
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Buona Festa! International Women’s Day
Mimosa, the flower and tree pictured, is the symbol of International Women’s Day or la Festa della Donna in Italy. It is currently blooming in warmer climates of the Italian peninsula. International Women’s Day is celebrated throughout the world. It recognizes the contributions of women to society, originating in the labor and suffrage movements of…
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Votive Offerings Through The Millennia
Archaeologists are very careful to identify to whom an ancient temple is dedicated until they have concrete evidence (and I don’t just mean concrete in the sense of stone!). In Siracusa, for example, we know that the temple to Apollo on Ortigia is for Apollo because there is an inscription on the east-facing stairs stating…
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Piazza Della Vittoria Is A Victory For The Goddess
It’s not lost on me (or my friend, tour guide Rosa Rizza) that when they broke ground in 1973 at Piazza della Vittoria in Siracusa to build the Sanctuary for the Madonna of the Tears, that where they intended to place the church, they discovered the foundation of the late 5th/early 4th century BCE Sanctuary…
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They Looked To Venus For Love
In ancient times, if you were looking for love and passion, western Sicily was the place to go. I’ve written about Erice in the past, where for centuries there was a temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and before that, it was a temple to the Carthaginians’ and Phoenicians’ goddess of love. Well,…
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Sicily’s Graceful Example Of Doric Architecture
The doric temple at Segesta, built c. 420 BCE by a Sicilian architect who was influenced by his Greek forefathers’ design styles, sits in the Trapani Province countryside.