In 480 BC Theron, tyrant of Agrigento, moved against Himera in order to achieve his dream of an outlet on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was thanks to his alliance with Hiero I, tyrant of Syracuse, that he managed to defeat the Carthaginian army. The Greeks of Sicily had a crushing victory in the battle. ...

Loculi, rectangular wall chambers dedicated to a single tomb, and arcosoli, burial chambers embedded in the wall and surmounted by a niche were both dug into the walls of the Fragapane Grotto. In some niches you can still see traces of the wall decorations that adorned the rooms with floral and fes...

The Temple of Concordia takes its name from an ancient Roman inscription found nearby the majestic structure, which although has no relation to a temple, speaks of the consecration of a Sanctuary to Concordia, a Roman mythological figure evocative of community harmony. The temple’s spectacular st...

Published for the first time in 1912 in the Corriere della Sera newspaper, the novella Ciàula scopre la luna (Ciàula discovers the moon) is one of the literary examples of the exploitation of small sulphur miners in the Sicilian quarries between the 19th and 20th centuries. The text has links wit...

At the end of the 20th century in Montechiaro, in the province of Agrigento, a large sanctuary dating back to the Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC) was identified and excavated. Consecrated to the cults of prosperity and fertility, it was probably linked to the production and export of sulphur which wa...

The tegulae sulphuris are fundamental archaeological finds for understanding and studying the production activities and commercial relations that took place in Agrigentum. They are clay tablets with inscriptions from right to left that showed the name of the workshop that produced them or who contr...

Sulphur is a very common chemical element in nature. It can be found in its free state, in which case it is a clear citrine yellow colour, or combined with other elements such as limestone or gypsum which give it a brownish or light grey colour. It can be volcanic or sedimentary in origin: the depos...

Every year in July in Agrigento the Feast of San Calogero is celebrated. It is said that the monk Calogerus came to Sicily to spread the Christian faith and during a period of plague, he walked the streets to ask for bread for the poor. Afraid that he would get too close to their houses, citizens ...

Mills were machines used by the Romans to transform wheat into flour. Though the existence here of water mills also in previous times has been ascertained, those found in the town in question were all made of lava stone and placed inside the tabernae. The grindstones had a circular brickwork bas...

Tabernae and cauponae were two different types of establishments in ancient Rome. The cauponae were restaurants where people went to eat and drink, and their furnishings included a brickwork counter in which were placed the earthenware containers or amphorae that stored food; they were also equippe...