Experience Sicily

Tag: architecture

  • Baroque-style Confession in Palermo

    This little alcove is an ornate, baroque version of where one goes for confession. Look closely. The priest is waiting for you behind the oval shaped, brass screen. Be careful what you say, because the jam-packed mix of marble, stucco, and fresco designs of this spot–Palermo’s Chiesa di Santa Caterina, built between 1566 and 1596…

  • The Temple of Concord in Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples

    The Temple of Concord in Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples is one of the best preserved Doric temples in the world. Built in c. 430 B.C. by Greek colonists, it has 34 enormous columns. It owes its relatively excellent state to a 4th century A.D. conversion to a Christian basilica. It’s unclear to whom the…

  • Agrigento’s Temple of Heracles

    These massive doric columns are from the 6th century BC Temple of Heracles at Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples (Valle dei Templi). The eight of them were reconstructed in 1924. The ancient city of Akragas was established by the Greeks and then conquered by the Romans, who renamed it Agrigentum.

  • Santo Sepolcro, Bagheria

    Detail from the facade of the Chiesa del Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme in Bagheria. The cornerstone was laid in 1740. 

  • Agrigento’s Temple of Castor and Pollux

    The four remaining columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, built in the 5th century BC and reconstructed in the 19th century, offer a lasting impression of the outstanding Valle dei Templi ruins of the ancient Greater Greece colony that was once 200,000 inhabitants strong. 

  • Monreale’s Mosaic Designs

    Each of the 228 columns of the cloisters of the Cathedral of Monreale has a unique mosaic design. Built around 1200 and commissioned by Norman King William II, these architectural gems possess design elements from Sicily’s Arab, Jewish, Byzantine, and Greek and Roman past. 

  • The Red Domes of Palermo

    The red domes of Palermo’s San Giovanni degli Eremiti, built in 1132, rise above a garden of citrus trees, roses, fichi d’india, and jasmine. 

  • Even the Fence is a Work of Art

    The iron fence along the staircase leading to Ragusa Ibla’s duomo is itself a work of art. 

  • Palermo’s Architectural Details

    A Palermo building detail illustrates the mix of influences, cultures, and styles that exist in Sicily’s capital.