MONUMENTS

Visit Syracuse and its environs, with numerous archaeological sites, museums, nature reserves near the cities of his department in the world famous for the specific expression of Sicilian Baroque, is a unique experience. To see all the days available should be very numerous. What we propose here is a journey through the archaeological sites, architectural, artistic and natural the more representative.

THE GREEK THEATER
One of the largest theaters of the Greek world that rises on the slopes of the hill Téménite. The first phase of its construction dates from the time I Hiéron whose court was visited by Pindar, Simonides of Ceos, and Bacchylide Aeschylus in 474 BC

Latomie OF THE PARADISE AND CAPUCINS
The huge stone over an area of several square kilometers on a series of gardens (Paradisos in Greek means "garden") and rocky cliffs. Of these quarries are derived monolithic columns of 8 meters high and 2 meters in diameter used in the sixth century to build the temples of Apollo and Jupiter. In this context is the Ear of Dionysius, an artificial cave in which the tyrant Dionysius placed the prisoners in jail. The name "Ear of Dionysius" was given by the painter Michelangelo Merisi, Caravaggio said, because the feature that allows sound to warn the slightest murmur through a hole which is on top. Apparently in this manner Denys spying enemies imprisoned.
Also in the Latomie Paradise is the Cave of Cordiers, the names of the workers of the rope in the seventeenth century.

The altar HIERON II
Probably built in the second half of the third century BC A greater altar of an Olympic stadium, from 198.4 meters long and 22.6 meters wide.

Roman amphitheater
Not far from the altar of Hieron II and the Greek theater, the Roman amphitheater was the scene of bloody battles between gladiators. Its construction dates back to the first century BC

THE CHURCH OF ST JOHN
One of the early Christian churches built in Syracuse around the sixth century AD near the crypt of St-Martian, the protoévêque sent to Syracuse, according to tradition, by St-Pierre.
In addition, the catacombs of St Jean and not far from the Catacombs of Vigna Cassia, the oldest, probably dug in the fourth century AD

THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA: THE CATHEDRAL
Gelon the tyrant was built after the victory in the Battle of Himer in 480 BC. AD on the highest point of Ortigia in a place already considered sacred to the pre-existence of an archaic temple. Even today, it is the most sacred places of the city as the cathedral enshrines within its walls the old colonnade of the temple since the time of Bishop Zosimo during the Byzantine domination.

PALAIS PALAIS AND VERMEXIO Beneventano
The terrible earthquake in 1693 has built in Syracuse, Noto and other towns of the Sicilian baroque department, but the Palais Vermexio (which takes its name from the famous architect that designed it) was already completed in 1633 .
Beneventano the palace by the architect Luciano Alì, one student of the famous Sicilian architect Andrea Palma, was completed in 1775.
These buildings, the facade of the cathedral, the episcopal palace, the abbey of St Lucia - with its magnificent facade Caracciolo whose composition recalls the beginning of the Baroque era and contrast with the beautiful wrought iron balcony - the frame Piazza Duomo, defined by many visitors one of the most beautiful places in the world.

LA FONTAINE D'Arethusa
The legend qu'Aréthuse, nymph of Artemis, goddess of hunting, who intend to cross the Alpheus, a river that flows near Corinth, so has the feeling of being suffocated by the embrace of the River that once the bank earned, begged Artémise deliver the love of Alpheus desires. The goddess and the led through the trails submarines of the Aegean to the island of Ortigia, transforming source. The despair was such Alphée arriving too confusing for Ortigia in its waters with those of Arethusa.
The myth describes a spiritual connection between Greece and Syracuse.

National Palace Museum BELLOMO
It stands in two medieval buildings of Frederick II of Sweden. Among the many masterpieces, it recalls the Annunciation by Antonello da Messina (1474) and the Burial of Saint Lucia for Caravaggio (1608).

CHATEAU MANIAC
At the extreme southern tip of the island of Ortigia. Wrongly takes the name of George Maniace that liberated the city from the Arab domination in the mid eleventh century, and make it safer, he strengthened the walls and he designed a castle surrounded mainly by sea but The construction of the castle dates back to the dominance of Frederick II of Sweden in the first half of the thirteenth century.

TEMPLE OF APOLLON
Probably the oldest Doric temple in Sicily. You will see upon entering Ortigia.

GYMNASIUM AND THEATER IN ROMAN STREET Elorina
The gym was one of the places where, in Roman times, sport and culture was performed at the same time. It dates from the second half of the first century AD

Olympieion OR THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS Olympian
One of the earliest Greek temples in Syracuse. Built just after the temple of Apollo and nearly a century before the Temple of Athena. He gets up on the hill overlooking the marshes and estuaries Lisimelie rivers and cyan Anapo which flow in parallel.

LE CHATEAU D'Euryale
The fortress called Castle Euryale was of strategic importance to the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse. With 15,000 square meters, it is considered the most complex military fortress of Greek history. The castle stands on the hill Epipoli, one of the five neighborhoods where the city was divided. Its name comes from the conformation assumed by the contribution of the best engineers of the time, the shape of a large nail to the head (euryale).

SOURCE CYAN
The source of the river Cyan, on the banks of which the papyrus grows spontaneous, takes its name from a legend: cyan, nymph of Proserpine, was punished by Pluto, the god of hell, and was transformed into a source because it God accused of abducting Proserpine while picking flowers on the shores of Lake Pergusa. The transformation told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses is magnificent: strong jeremiads rose from the mouth of cyan and a sea of tears flooded his face, his bones become weak, his nails lose their hardness, her hair, her legs and feet become the incredibly cold water, her back, her hips, her breasts long glide up getting lost in the choppy waters of the sea

Pantalica
It is a vast territory of 80 hectares with a radius of 5 km and a necropolis with five thousand tombs surrounding the Sicilian town Hubli. The first period in which the necropolis dates is the twelfth-thirteenth century BC
Pantalica lived his last during the Greek colonization of Syracuse, where groups of Sicilians were driven from Ortigia and they took refuge in the hills of Sortino, considering the availability of a channel of water as the river Anapo .

Akrai
Founded by Syracuse in 664 BC. AD as the front-military post located on a hill 700 meters high. Avant-guard post in the cities on the coast such qu'Heloros and Casmène. Its most important monument is the Greek theater, smaller than Syracuse, which dates back to the time of Hieron II and probably finished already in Roman times.
A little distance from the theater there are rock carvings known Santoni, 12 relief sculptures embedded in the walls, representing the goddess Cybele and other characters are difficult to identify, probably dating from the third century BC. J.-C.

Regional Archaeological Museum Paolo Orsi
The museum, one of the largest in the world is divided into three zones:
the first area includes prehistoric and protohistoric;
the second area includes Syracuse and Megara Hyblaea during their foundations;
The third area concerns the local Hellenistic centers also Agrigento and Gela.