The Greek colonies were cities designed and built by the Greeks outside of their homeland territories. They were formed as veritable cities separate to the homeland which imported festivities, rituals and traditions. Even their population came from the homeland city: architects for buildings, le...

The first capital on the right depicts St. John: a nimbate eagle, with its head surrounded by intense light, holds a plaque in its claws on which is engraved a passage from the Gospel taken from St. John. The second capital on the right shows a winged lion and also holds a plaque engraved with a pa...

Terracotta is a ceramic material that acquires a reddish-yellow colour when fired. This material has been used since ancient times to build furniture and statuettes. In Magna Graecia and Sicily in particular, it was used in architecture to clad buildings, but also to create busts of deities, small...

Opus isodomum, from the Greek isos meaning "equal" and domos meaning "row of stones", was a technique that the ancient Greeks used to build large and powerful walls. The process involved cutting all the stone blocks into equal height and thickness, then arranging them in horizontal rows at a regul...

The Siceliotes, a term derived from ancient Greek, were the inhabitants of the Greek cities of Sicily. They initially spread to the eastern and southern coasts of the island in the main cities: Syrakousai, Ghelas and Akragas. The Siceliotes were given this name to distinguish them from the Greeks ...

Tuttotondo ("in the round") is a sculptural technique used to create figures that are visible from every angle. The full shape of the sculpted object emerges completely from any background surface....

The skené is a construction found in front of the cavea. In the first theatres it was made of wood and was very simple. Its original function was practical: to provide actors with a secluded place to get ready without being seen, like a modern curtain. It was soon used as a scenic backdrop for ...

The Almond Blossom Festival is a popular festival in the Valley of the Temples that celebrates the early arrival of spring in the first week of February, when the almond trees begin to bloom candidly. There are two fundamental moments of this festival: the lighting of the fiaccola dell’amicizia...

The burning mirrors, together with other surprising war machines, were allegedly used by Archimedes during the siege of Syracuse by the Romans. The only explicit references to the burning mirrors can be found in the lost work of the Latin historian Cassius Dio, which has been passed down to the pre...

The Rupe Atenea (Athenian Cliff) was probably the acropolis of Akragas, the highest point in the city. When Akragas was destroyed by the Carthaginians in 406 BC, a long period followed in which the inhabitants tried to rebuild the beautiful city and its majestic monuments. In that period, right ...