Chiusa di Carlo
Palazzolo Acreide
Palazzolo Acreide
Baroque town from Greek roots, situated in the Iblei Mountains and not far from the river Anapo and Pantalica Rock, in 2002 was awarded the title of World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along with Val di Noto.
Palazzolo Acreide is just 30 km from our farm; 44 km from Syracuse; 39 km from Ragusa, and 91 kilometers from Catania. It is located in the west of the province, on the slopes of the mountains Iblei.
Near Palazzolo Acreide stood Akrai, a Syracusan colony founded around 664 BC (70 years after the foundation of Syracuse) by the Syracusans. The ancient city are preserved numerous testimonies, in particular an important stage and a complex of adjacent buildings greek-Roman agora building. Of a city street identifies with decumano is preserved intact the road surface.
Archaeological research has shown a generation prior to Greek colonization, it is of interest in this regard the necropolis of Pinita a complex of tombs dug down a steep limestone wall, which looks a lot like the majestic tombs of Pantalica, the people who buried the their dead little is known, already in antiquity svutotati returned some artifacts, very interesting is a tomb for the characteristic time Mycenaean testifying relations with the greek world and the Aegean. Other points of interest are the cave of Sparno and some tomb-caves near Bauly.
The Greek city stood on the height of Mount Acremonte, in this locality have been over time a localized Aphrodision (Heraion?) And other religious buildings mentioned in the inscription Kaibel 217. Of considerable historical importance and extra-urban sanctuary of Cybele identified by Marquis Paolo d'hotel and then made known by the French painter Jean Houel Palazzolo, who visited in 1779. During the period, the greek cities coined a coin bearing the image of the goddess Demeter, and was enriched with important civic buildings, the kingdom of Hiero II, probably born or grew up in this town, you have to the urban reorganization of the town in the Hellenistic period. The Roman period are preserved several testimonies of these as the basis of a honorary statue of Gaius Verres. In the late ancient era and the Christian city welcomed a large community of Christians and Jews who migrated after the edict of June 18, 1492 that expelled from the Spanish dominions Jewish Communities.
The presence of Christians and of Intagliata dell'Intagliatella urban catacombs, but also a large number of rural catacombs known to the scientific literature. are of considerable importance in this context, the Greek and Christian inscription studied by Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli. In modern times the city has once again become the object of excavations and studies that have fostered a better understanding of the ancient history of the town.
The ancient city was destroyed in 827 by Islamic troops camped near it waiting to occupy Syracuse. Recently the research were taken by the University of Warsaw who led in the greek-Roman city some excavations.
At the sitting of 27 June 2002 in Budapest, during the XXVI World Plenary Session, the church of San Sebastiano (www.sansebastiano.org) and San Paolo Palazzolo Acreide has been declared World Heritage Site monument.
