CHURCHS AND MUSEUMS

The Cistercians built San Nicola  Church in Romanesque forms on a site overlooking the Valley of the Temples, probably using materials taken from the ruins. Its simple yet grandiose façade between two antas has a fine lancet arched portal.

On the right of the austere interior (no aisles) with a pointed vault are four chapels. The second contains the famous sarcophagus decorated with bas-reliefs depicting the Phaedra and Hip-polytus myth, a 2nd-3rd century Roman work with the forms of the great Greek sculptures. The entrance to the Archeology Museum is behind the Church. Work on the museum site brought to light a group of public buildings in the San Nicola Church area. In the southern section lie the remains of a comitium comprising a circular stepped area, its central space orchestra-shaped and hewn from the rock. The cavea in Roman days was filled in and the Oratory ot Phaians  built; this is a small temple on a high prodium with an altar on the east face and a semi-circular recess that once had a statue in it. Today, theatrical performances and classical music concerts are held here.

The Regional Archeology Museum is of fundamental importance in understanding Agrigento's history and that of the surrounding area. Room I houses maps and ancient documents on the city’s history; Room II, Stone, Bronze and Iron Age material, ancient material from Gela and objects from the native 7th-6th century B.C. necropolis and the Monteiusa necropolis with the oldest tombs in Agrigento. Room III houses collections of red - and black - figured Attic ware (Gth-5th century B.C.) as well as Graeco-Italiot pottery (5th-3rd century B.C.). Room IV has lion’s head guttering from various sanctuaries and Room V votive objects from Agrigento temples, archaic statues of deities, terracotta busts, decorations and dishes. Room IV has material from the Temple to OIympian Jupiter with the giant telamon, some 8 m high, rebuilt on the end wall, as well as three other telamon heads; Room Vll: finds from the Hellenistic-Roman quarter (6th century B.C.-4th century A.D.) and the emblemata detached from the mosaic flooring; Room VIII: epigraphs; interesting monumental epigraphs from Greek Agrigento. Access to Room IX is by permission only. It has a coin collection with valuable bronze, silver and gold coins from Agrigento and other Greek Sicilian cities dating to the Greek, Roman and medieval periods. Room X houses a splendid Greek marble statue of a youth, carved by a Iocal artist in 470 B.C.; Room Xi: finds from recent excavations in the Agrigento necropoli dating to earIy and late antiquity, altar sarcophagi and others from Greek and Roman times. Rooms XIi-XIiI have pre-protohistoric material from the Agrigento hinterland. The most interesting pieces come from the remarkable Sant’Angelo Muxaro necropolis. Room XIV houses maps of many nearby towns and Room XV a splendid red-figured Attic crater (twohandled bowl) depicting the Amazzonomachia 450B.C. from Gela. The plans of Nisseno and the province of Caltanissetta are on exhibition in the next two rooms. Room XVIII can be visited only by permission and houses the collection of what Is known as "seconds” material. Travelling exhibitions are held in the last Room, a sort of museum annexe. The museum also comprises a library, auditorium and congress hall. The Hellenistic-Roman quarter 16 is a large agglomerate with a regular urban layout and provides the clearest understanding of the inhabitants’ way of life in those days. The oldest part dates to the 4th-3rd century B.C. but building continued till the 4th-5th century A.D. Four cardines, the main streets, are aligned at the centre, terminating north of the decumanus with which the modem state road now coincides. Buildings in various styles lie along the streets, ranging from Hellenic to Italic and composite; several shops alternate with the houses. There are plentiful traces of painted whitewash and mosaic paving, both opus signinum, classical in the Republican and Augustan periods, and opus tessellatum, with black geometrical designs 1st century A.D. Many plant and animal designs date to the 2nd or 3rd century A.D.  Ruins of public works are scattered all over the quarter: water, drainage and sewage systems.

The Giacatello hypogeum is a huge square cistern with lucernai, carved from the rock, which collected water filtered trough the hill 5th century B.C. Viale della Vittoria is the road running past the Greek and modern cities, and near it lies the Rupe Atenea, a high rock face dominating the north walls and, according to all experts, coinciding with the acropolis. Not far away, the ruins of a Hellenistic press 4th century B.C. and a watch tower have recently been discovered.

A visit to the modem city begins at little San Calogero (19) Church, with still visible medieval traces. Going straight on one comes to Piazzale Aldo Moro, the entrance to medieval Agrigento. Then taking the main thoroughfare, Via Atenea, which winds into Piazza Pirandello, visitors reach Palazzo Celauro (20), seat of the Centro siciliano di studi preistorici e protostorici (prehistory and protohistory study centre), with explanatory material on paleoanthropology and paleontology and various collections, pictures and replicas relating mainly to the island.

Santo Spirito Abbey (21) (Salita Santo Spirito) was built in the l3th century and later totally restructured. The door and rose window in the façade are medieval. The interior (rebuilt in the l8th century) has a panelled ceiling, stuccoes by Giacomo Serpotta and a Madonna by a pupil of Gagini. Access to the former monastery is at the side of the church; this has interesting rooms and medieval architecture, the cloisters are enhanced by several portals, the chapter hall has lancet arches and a splendid portaI with flanking mullioned openings, as weIl as a refectory, seat of the municipal Library (22), the dormitory hall and chapel. The Baroque Purgatory Church (23) in Piazza Purgatorio, to which access is through a magnificent portal, dominates the little square. The interior has no aisles and is lined with stucco statues depicting the Virtues, attributed to Serpotta.

To the right of the square is the entrance to the so-called Purgatory hypogeum, a series of tunnels carved in the rock for channelling drinking water to the city. It dates to the 5th century B.C. The Cathedral (24) (Via Duomo) stands on the edge of the crag, its entire right side on Via Duomo where parts of the original construction can still be seen. The fasade juts scenographically from the top of a flight of steps. Built in the year 1000, it was transformed more than once between then and the 17th century. The interesting l5th century belltower has a double order of blind single openings dating to Gothic-Catalan times and the balcony with bichrome decoration belongs to the Arab-Norman period. The twoaisled interior with its 16th-17th century panelled ceiling has much of interest to offer the visitor. There is a statue of the Virgin Mary (end l5th century) in the right aisle, and Gothic San Gerlando chapel housing the patron saint’s silver reliquary (c. mid-l7th century). Tombs of 15th- 17th century archbishops and notables line the left aisle; one chapel houses the tomb of Gaspare de Marinis, by Giovanni Gagini and Andrea Mancino, and an interesting Madonna of the Gagini school. A rare acoustic effect in the presbytery is called "voice carrier", since the murmurs of someone at the door of the cathedral can be heard in the apse.

The Baroque Bishop’s Seminary (25), with its fine arcaded courtyard and double order of loggias, stands on the same little square. The ruins of the l4th century Chiaramonte “Steri" can be admired here. Not far from the cathedral is the Diocesan Museum of Religious Art (26) with ecclesiastical objects, 14th and 15th century frescoes, Byzantine reliquaries, precious metalwork and sarcophagi.

Santa Maria dei Greci Church (21) (Via Santa Maria dei Greci) incorporates a Doric temple dating to 480-460 B.C., a peripteral building, its cella having a pronaos and opisthomodomos. A little courtyard in front of the church has bits of ancient columns; some of the vertical elements and part of the capitals are conserved in the atrium; the portal dates to the l3th century. The interior is divided into a central nave and two aisles on pointed arches; there are three apses. The Civic Museum (28) in Piazza del Municipio houses medieval and Renaissance sculptures and an art gallery with l3th te l8th century paintings, the most notable being Neptune and Nymph by Luca Giordano, a Madonna and Angels attributed te a follower of Vincenzo da Pavia and a Madonna and Child (15th century) by a Sicilian artist.

The Sinatra Gallery has works by late  19th century early 20th century painters including Mirabella, De Maria, Loiacono, Camarda and others.