Buongiorno a tutti!
Today's post will take you way, way, way, way, way back in time - more than 27 centuries!
We're going to visit the City of Siracusa (Syracuse), and the Valle dei Templi (Valley of Temples) near the City of Agrigento. So be prepared to enter the Time Machine with us - it's amazing.
Chapter 6: Siracusa
Siracusa (Syracuse) was founded by Greek settlers from Corinth and Tenea more than 2750 years ago. It is located on the southeast corner of Sicily, on the island of Ortigia in the Ionian Sea. It was, at one time, the largest city of the ancient world with a population of 300,000.
As we have seen elsewhere in Sicily, the city of Siracusa was conquered by many successive empires. In fact, we can round up the usual suspects: the Romans; Byzantines; Arabs; Medieval Kings, Henry VI and his son Frederick II, as kings of Germany, Sicily, and Italy; the Spanish; the Bourbons from France & Spain; and finally, the unified Italy in 1865.
Siracusa was also the first city to fall to the British army on the first night of the Allied forces Sicilian campaign of WWII. The port was subsequently used by the British Navy as a base from which men, materiel, and food could be supplied to the troops as they advanced throughout the rest of Sicily.
Statue of the renowned Greek mathematician and inventor,
Archimedes, a resident of Siracusa
This is one of the first set of ruins visitors come upon when crossing the bridge to the island of Ortigia. They are the remnants of the Greek Temple of Apollo
This is looking at the same Temple from a different angle. It provides a good view of a "Doric-style" column
Here's an illustration of the 3 main types of Greek columns
Doric Ionic Corinthian
These are the original foundation stones from fortifications that were built by the Greeks to protect Siracusa from invaders.
Below is the Fountain of Diana, mythical goddess of the hunt and the protector of Ortigia. It may be found in the Piazza Archimede
Let's check out the two pictures below. They are both of the Duomo di Siracusa. It is a fascinating structure because it is a church that was built in the 7th-century over the great Temple of Athena (that originated in the 5th century BCE).
The former Temple, was built in the Doric style, with six columns on the short sides and 14 on the long sides: these are still incorporated into the walls of the cathedral! The picture immediately below provides a very good view of the original Doric columns standing along the long side.
And here is a much better view of the newer, superimposed church structure from the Piazza Duomo
The interior of the church has a nave and two aisles. The roof of the nave is from Norman times, as well as the mosaics in the apses. And, if you are following the column lesson, the corner of the Duomo has several Corinthian columns - very typical of Baroque stylings.
This is the Seafront around Ortigia and Siracusa
Chapter 7: Valle dei Templi
In this chapter, we've moved from the eastern part of Sicily, along the southern coast, on our way to the city of Agrigento and its environs. In terms of our subject matter, we will be focusing on the beautiful historic residence hotel where we stayed for our visit in the region, a famous sea shoreline called La Scala dei Turchi (The Turkish Steps) and, last but not least, the awesome Valle dei Templi (Valley of Temples).
This is at the entrance to the marvellous historic residence hotel
"Foresteria Baglio Della Luna"
Courtyard pics
Entrance to the gardens
The beautiful gardens.
Dining room overlooking the Valle dei Templi
A short drive away from the hotel took us to ...
In our research of the area we found the following description on the "Visit Sicily" website:
Of the many staircases you may know, this is certainly one of the most unusual. You have already realised that this is not a real staircase, but a spectacular stretch of coastline that has become a Sicilian tourist seascape icon thanks to its special features.
This white cliff is composed of marl, soft, calcareous, clayey and is a dazzling white. Nature, like a great artist, has worked this material over time, making it softly sinuous with the help of the sea and the salty breeze, forming terraces and smoothing out every angle.
The sea, taking advantage of this sparkling white, shows off its most intense blues and azures.
An interesting fact: the name Scala dei Turchi seems to derive from the fact that in ancient times the ships of Arab and Turkish marauders found shelter in this bay.
Yes, it's a bit over the top in its description, but the cliffs are really that white and the sea is really that blue!
...looking Northwest
And now for the star of our show...
... the Valle dei Templi!!
The Valle dei Templi is an archaeological and landscape park. It is the largest of its kind (1300 hectares) in Europe and the Mediterranean basin and has a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The Valley includes remains of seven temples, all in the Doric style. It is, unquestionably the most important reflection of Ancient Greek history and culture in Sicily and Italy, overall.
If you've ever studied classical Greek history, and even if you haven't, this will blow your mind!
This was our first view as we approached the gates to the park - more on this below
On entering the site, we passed by several structures that looked like this:
This structure is part of the city wall in the ancient City of Akragas, its original Greek name (near modern day Agrigento). In its entirety, it would have encircled the whole of the city for protection purposes. But it also doubled as a burial ground! Each cell of the type above, would have held one body.
The first temple we came upon was the Temple of Juno - dedicated to the goddess of fertility.
Our guide, Ilaria (Hillary), explains that this image represents how the Temple of Juno would have looked in 460 BCE. Unlike today, the whole structure would have been white, with bright colours for the roof and just under the roof line. There would also have been an enclosed area in the middle, that would have contained a statue of Juno.
The long side of the Temple of Juno, which contained 12 Doric columns. There were 6 columns across the front
This is the view down from the temple of Juno at the top of the archaeological park and out to the sea.
This is an olive tree just below the Temple of Juno. Can you guess how old it is?
Everything is ancient in the Valle dei Templi -
it is over 800 years old!
Ok, this next temple was our slam-dunk favourite: The Temple of Concordia
This temple was completed c.440-430 BCE.
It is considered to be one of the best-preserved ancient Greek temples, as an amazing 70% of its structure remains intact today. It is almost 9m high, and 40m long. You can even see the enclosed structure within the rows of columns.
Do we have any buildings that will last 25 centuries??
Awesome, just awesome.
2 more views of Tempio di Concordia.
It is just so photogenic.
How about a little comic relief?
Can you make out the intertwined horns of the goat?
Originally, this channel was part of the water system serving the ancient city of Akragas. Over the centuries, this part of the system was converted to roadways. Note the 2 deep ruts carved out over time by cart wheels.
This is what remains of the Tempio di Heracles (Temple of Hercules, son of Zeus).
It is the oldest of the 7 temples. It housed a bronze statue of the hero Hercules, a favourite god of the people of Akragas. The temple was destroyed by war and probably by an earthquake. Today it retains only eight columns of the original 38.
This is a conceptual drawing of the Temple of Zeus. Since Zeus was the God of Gods in Greek mythology, this temple was built on a colossal scale to honour his position. It was the largest Doric temple ever constructed. It stood at 20m high (almost 7 storeys), 113m long and 56m wide. It had 7 Doric columns along the front and 12 along the long side. Note the 6 figures between each of the columns - they are called "Telemon" or "Atlases". They are 7.5 m tall and are intended to support the weight of the upper part of the temple. We will talk more about these below.
The Temple's history is unclear, but it was thought to be under construction c. 480 BCE, and was never totally completed. Over the centuries, its components collapsed due to earthquakes and neglect. Its materials were repurposed to build houses in Agrigento. As described in Wikipedia, it "survives today only as a broad stone platform heaped with tumbled pillars and blocks of stone".
These are remnants of the top of a Doric column from the Temple of Zeus...
...and these are pieces of one of the Atlases.
But thanks to recent grants, researchers and archeologists have been able to reconstruct a Telamon from the pieces they have found. The original pieces are among the holdings of the onsite archeological museum but copies of the originals have been assembled to make this realistic and startling impression. Here Vince helps provide perspective of the Telemon's proportions
More of the remains of the Temple of Zeus
Here we are at the end of our tour, with our guide, Ilaria.
Back at the Hotel, the hearty trekkers celebrate their day with some lovely rosato and aperitivi!
Before closing for this part of our blog, we want to take a few moments to share some of our thoughts and emotions of the day. Without getting maudlin, Vince, Jenn and I all had similar reactions to what we saw and learned - we were unquestionably awestruck; we each marvelled at the wonders that were created so many years ago using ancient building techniques; and we each will continue to reflect on the fact that such achievements made us all feel like very, very, very small players in the history of the world.
Next up, we'll move to the west coast of Sicily, to the city of Trapani and the village of Erice.
Ciao for now!
Susanna, Vincenzo e Jenn
Courtyard pics
Comments
Post a Comment