The Cathedral of Ortygia is the island's treasure, thanks to its historical testimony and the richness of the finest details that make it a sober yet sumptuous monument. The small sculptures on the pediment of the façade do not depict little angels, but small Cupids, surviving proof of the mixture...

In classical architectural orders, the trabeation is a horizontal structure that includes the architrave, frieze and cornice and rests on vertical supports such as columns or pillars. The architrave, which rests on the capitals of the columns, has the structural function of supporting the parts abo...

A flat triangular wall, it is the final part of a composition or structure, inside the cornices that delimit the pediment of classical temples, and sometimes contains decorations in high relief....

The discovery of the remains of the Ionic temple below Palazzo Vermexio, near the Cathedral of Ortygia, was particularly significant. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is the only known building in the West inspired by an Eastern Greek model. The investigations carried out on the remains of t...

In Pantalica, this building was the residence of the local chief and testifies to the level of social organisation achieved by the indigenous peoples of eastern Sicily. The Anaktoron, probably built around the 12th century BC under the influence of Mycenaean Greek architecture, stood on one of the ...

The fresco of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste was an extraordinary revelation: it was hidden under a layer of hydraulic mortar, apart from one pictorial element on the vault: a clipeus, a portrait inscribed in a shield-shaped tondo, depicting the praying Virgin. The work presents a complex representat...

Born in Genoa in 1910, Luigi Bernabò Brea was one of the most important Italian archaeologists of the 20th century. His name is deeply linked to the archaeological discoveries of eastern Sicily, where he moved in 1941 to serve as Superintendent of Antiquities. The Italian archaeologist dedicated h...

The fortifications were not gifted to the city by the Spanish, but were paid for by the Syracusans through the imposition of very steep taxes. At the time of construction of the first forts, these taxes were commonly known as the "Maleimposte" (bad taxes)....

The Euryalus Fortress was also the backdrop to more recent events. In 1941, during the Second World War, it was necessary to transform the underground tunnels of the Fortress into a shelter to protect the archaeological collections of the Paolo Orsi Museum from bombing. Numerous wagons carried the...

A particular type of tomb is described as "a grotticella", meaning cave-like, also called "a forno" (furnace-like), and is commonly found in Sicilian necropolises during the Bronze Age. Small chambers called grottoes were dug into the limestone at variable depths and were shaped similar to a furnace...