From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Palazzolo Acreide (Sicilian:
Palazzolu Acrèidi, in the local dialect:
Palazzuolu) is a town and comune of in the Province
of Syracuse, Sicily (Italy). It is situated 43 km
from the city of Syracuse in the Hyblean Mountains.
History
The area around Palazzolo Acreide was settled by humans since
very ancient times. In the 11th-10th centuries BC the Siculi lived
here in small villages. The town occupies the site of the ancient
Akrai (Latin Acrae), founded by Syracuse
about 664 BC. The city was important as it controlled the
paths of communication with the towns on the southern coast of the
island. According to Thucydides, the Syracusans defeated the
Athenians here in 413 BC.
In the treaty between the Romans and Hiero II of Syracuse in 263 BC it was assigned to
the latter. After the Roman conquest, it became a civitas
stipendiaria, and was still prospering in the course of the
early Christian age.
The old city was probably destroyed by the Arabs, in the first half of
the ninth century. The new city was built around a Norman castle, no longer
extant. In 1693, an earthquake destroyed almost all of the city,
which was slowly rebuilt in the following centuries.
Economy
The economy of Palazzolo Acreide relies mainly on agriculture (cereals)
and farming of cattle and sheep.
Main
sights
- Church of St. Sebastian (15th
century, rebuilt after the 17th century).
- Basilica of San Paolo (18th century).
- Church of Santa Maria della Medaglia.
- Church of San Michele (15th to 16th centuries, rebuilt
after 1693). It is a typical example of "minor Sicilian
Baroque", with a notable belfry closed by a cupola.
- Church of the Assunta or Immacolata (18th
century). It has a convex façade and a single nave interior, with
rich decorations. It houses a statue of the Madonna, in Carrara white marble, sculpted
by Francesco
Laurana in 1471-1472.
- Church of St. Anthony (18th century), unfinished, with a neo-Romanesque façade.
- The Chiesa Madre ("Mother Church"). The first document
attesting its existence dates from 1215, when the church was
dedicated to St. Nicholas. It was largely rebuilt and redecorated
after the earthquake of 1693, with a Neo-classicist
façade. The interior is on the Latin cross plan, with a nave and
two aisles decorated with precious polychrome marbles.
- Antonino Uccello's Museum House. It houses artifacts
and remains from the peasant civilization of Sicily, including
working tools, glass paintings, wax statues and others.
- Palazzo Cappellani, where the Archaeological Museum is
site (currently to be opened).
- Grotto of St. Conrad, a small church carved in a cliff, on the
site where the hermit Corrado Confalonieri retired in the 14th
century. Traces of mosaics and the base of the altar remain.
The Greek Theater in the ancient
Akrai.
The ancient
city
The ancient city lied on the hill above the modern town, the
approach to it being defended by quarries, in which tombs of all
periods have been discovered. The auditorium of the small theater
is well preserved, though nothing of the stage remains. Close to it
are ruins of other buildings, which bear, without justification,
the names Naumachia, Odeum
(perhaps a bath establishment) and Palace of Hiero. The water
supply was obtained by subterranean aqueducts. In the cliffs of the
Monte Pineta to the south are other tomb chambers, and to the south
again are the curious bas-reliefs called Santoni or
Santicelli, mutilated in the 19th century by a peasant proprietor,
which appear to be sepulchral also. Near here too is the necropolis
of the Acrocoro della Torre, where many sarcophagi have
been found. Five miles north lies Buscemi, near which a sacred grotto has been
discovered; and also a church cut in the rock and surrounded by a
cemetery.
References
External
links
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For official site names, see each article or the List of World
Heritage Sites in Italy. |
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Aeolian
Islands · Alberobello · Amalfi Coast · Aquileia · Archaeological
Area of Agrigento ·
Assisi · Barumini nuraghes · Botanical Garden, Padua · Palace of
Caserta, Aqueduct of Vanvitelli
and San Leucio Complex · Castel del Monte · Cathedral, Torre Civica and
Piazza Grande, Modena · Cerveteri and Tarquinia · Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park,
Paestum and
Velia, Certosa di
Padula · Crespi d'Adda · The Dolomites · Ferrara · Florence · Genoa · Hadrian's Villa · Mantua and Sabbioneta · Sassi of Matera · Naples · Piazza del Duomo, Pisa · Pienza · Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre
Annunziata · Portovenere, Cinque
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Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto · Ravenna · Residences of the
Royal House of Savoy · Rhaetian
Railway in the Albula / Bernina
Landscapes1 · Rock Drawings in
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Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy · San Gimignano · Santa Maria delle
Grazie, Milan · Siena · Syracuse
and Necropolis of
Pantalica · Urbino · Val d'Orcia · Val di Noto (Caltagirone, Militello in Val di
Catania, Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo
Acreide, Ragusa, Scicli) · Venice · Verona · Vicenza and Palladian Villas of the
Veneto · Villa d'Este · Villa Romana del
Casale
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1 Shared with Switzerland. 2 Shared with the
Holy See. |
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