The Old Town of Agrigento
The old town of Agrigento represents, with its narrow alleys, squares and courtyards, a typical
Arab urban structure considered among the most authentic and best preserved in Sicily, though the most ancients architectonic occurences date back to the
Norman period. At its summit is the Cathedral founded at the end of the
XI century by San Gerlando, the first bishop after the Muslim domination and
patron of the city. Having been repeatedly enlarged and restructured in the
following centuries, today it is a wonderful fusion of different styles. Atop a
wide staircase flanked by a massive bell tower dating back to 1470, the
seventeenth-century silver urn of San Gerlando, funerary monuments of bishops
and nobles, valuable paintings, frescoes, stucco and refined wooden ceilings
are on display.
Adjacent to the Cathedral is the
eighteenth-century Luchessian Library, which houses numerous and
valuable volumes. The nearby church of Santa Maria dei Greci is so named because it
originates from the Greek-Catholic rite. In the courtyard before the church you
can still sense an atmosphere of Oriental mysticism. It was built on the ruins
of the Temple of Athena, dating from the VI century B.C.
In a small underground passage the remains of the basement are visible,
while the colonnade is incorporated into the perimeter walls of the church. The
Abbey of the Holy Spirit, founded by the Chiaramonte family at the end of the
thirteenth century, still dominates on what was the expansion area of the city.
Inside the church the stucco art of Palermitan sculptor Giacomo Serpotta is
celebrated, who lived and worked between the end of the 1600’s and the early 1700’s.
The quadrangular cloister from the adjacent monastery has elegant windows and
portals. Inside, the Sinatra Art Galley holds a wonderful collection of
paintings from famous Sicilian painters of the 1800’s, portraying the lush
nature of Sicily.