Experience Sicily

Tag: belice

  • Stopped In My Tracks at Cretto di Burri

    Seeing this sculpture in person earlier this month was very moving. At the site of Gibellina Vecchia, a town in southwestern Sicily that was flattened by the January/February 1968 earthquakes, a stunning exhibition of 8,000 square meters of concrete has transformed the ruins of what were once homes, businesses, and public spaces. Grande Cretto or…

  • Fifty Years Ago the Earth Shook

    Fifty years ago during the night of January 14 to 15, 1968 through subsequent days leading to early February 1968, a series of earthquakes rocked southwestern Sicily. The Valle del Belice and the people who called it home have not been the same since. Because it was before the Richter Scale measured tremors in Italy,…

  • The Earthquake of 1968

    This week, with the tragic earthquake in central Italy shaking us all near and far, one who knows Sicilian history can’t but help think about the Belice Earthquake that occurred during the night of January 14 and 15, 1968 through early February 1968. It was before the Richter Scale measured tremors in Italy, so it’s…

  • Sicily’s Sistine Chapel

    The Chiesa di San Domenico in Castelvetrano in Trapani Province is a masterpiece. Originally built in the 1470s when commissioned by the Tagliavia family, the church gained spectacle status once artist Antonio Ferraro da Giuliana and his sons spent three years from 1577-1580 creating the stucco scene above the altar titled “Albero di Jesse,” or…