In 2003, the UNESCO General Conference signed the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage to encourage, in the age of globalisation, mutual understanding and respect for different ways of life. Intangible Cultural Heritage includes traditions, oral expressions, performin...

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 word kolymbetra, of Greek origin, means pool. In ancient Akragas, the term indicated the immense pool full of colourful fish that the tyrant Theron had built in the Vallone della Badia Bassa (Valley of the Low Abbey), where the Sanctuary of the Chthonic Deities still stands today. ...

Gladiators were athletes who in ancient Rome fought with a small sword (the gladius, hence their name) for the amusement of crowds. The gladiator shows first spread among private individuals, meeting with increasing success, and in 105 BC became public shows much appreciated by the masses during t...

On the day of the dies lustricus, children were given a name: their personal name, which was equivalent to our given name. They were only called by this epithet within the family: outside the family nucleus, the name of the gens was used instead, often accompanied by a cognomen (a nickname)....

The dies lustricus (purification day), for the ancient Romans, was the day when the newborn child was officially welcomed into the family, after having been purified in the rite of lustratio through various instruments that may have been water (aqua lustralisi), olive branches or some plant species....

In memory of Luigi Pirandello, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934, a museum was founded in his birthplace in Caos, on the border between the towns of Agrigento and Porto Empedocle. The works of Pirandello, who grew up in these places, are imbued with intense suggestions and strong fee...

In ancient Rome, the term gens meant several families who had a common origin. The gens were a fundamental institution during the Roman monarchy, when they were made up only of patricians whose power was based on land possession. The first Roman senate was composed only of members of the gentes,...

Until the late 16th century, the valley was in a condition of neglect and oblivion, used for the most part for the cultivation of fields. With the advent of the Grand Tour around 1700, however, a period of rediscovery began of the places that in the past had made Akragas then Agrigentum great. T...

The Girgentana goat is a typical species of goat in the Agrigento area. They can be recognised from other species by their twisted, spiral horns that give them a unique elegance. Thanks to the Park's actions, the endangered animal inhabits these places once more. A small sheepfold near the Temple...