Locali d'Autore

Abbiamo a cuore la tua privacy

Come indicato nella cookie policy, noi e alcuni partner selezionati facciamo uso di tecnologie, quali i cookie, per raccogliere ed elaborare dati personali dai dispositivi (ad esempio l'indirizzo IP, tracciamenti precisi dei dispositivi e della posizione geografica), al fine di garantire le funzionalità tecniche, mostrarti pubblicità personalizzata, misurarne la performance, analizzare le nostre audience e migliorare i nostri prodotti e servizi. Con il tuo consenso potremo fare uso di tali tecnologie per le finalità indicate. Puoi liberamente conferire, rifiutare o revocare il consenso a tutti o alcuni dei trattamenti facendo click sul pulsante "Preferenze". Puoi acconsentire all'uso delle tecnologie sopra menzionate facendo click su "Accetta" o rifiutarne l'uso facendo click su "Rifiuta".

RifiutaPersonalizzaAccetta

Locali d'Autore

Il rispetto della tua riservatezza è la nostra priorità

Noi e i nostri fornitori archiviamo informazioni su un dispositivo (e/o vi accediamo), quali cookie e trattiamo i dati personali, quali gli identificativi unici e informazioni generali inviate da un dispositivo per le finalità descritte sotto. Puoi fare clic per consentire a noi e ai nostri fornitori di trattarli per queste finalità. In alternativa puoi fare clic per negare il consenso o accedere a informazioni più dettagliate e modificare le tue preferenze prima di acconsentire. Le tue preferenze si applicheranno solo a questo sito web. Si rende noto che alcuni trattamenti dei dati personali possono non richiedere il tuo consenso, ma hai il diritto di opporti a tale trattamento. Puoi modificare le tue preferenze in qualsiasi momento ritornando su questo sito o consultando la nostra informativa sulla riservatezza.

Cookie strettamente necessari Questi cookie sono necessari per il funzionamento del sito e non possono essere disattivati ​​nei nostri sistemi. Di solito vengono impostati solo in risposta alle azioni da te effettuate che costituiscono una richiesta di servizi, come l'impostazione delle preferenze di privacy, l'accesso o la compilazione di moduli. È possibile impostare il browser per bloccare o avere avvisi riguardo questi cookie, ma di conseguenza alcune parti del sito non funzioneranno. Questi cookie non archiviano informazioni personali.

Cookie per pubblicità mirata Questi cookie possono essere impostati tramite il nostro sito dai nostri partner pubblicitari. Possono essere utilizzati da queste aziende per costruire un profilo dei tuoi interessi e mostrarti annunci pertinenti su altri siti. Non memorizzano direttamente informazioni personali, ma sono basati unicamente sull'individuazione del tuo browser e del tuo dispositivo internet. Se non si accettano questi cookie, riceverai una pubblicità meno mirata.

Rifiuta tuttoAccetta tuttoAccetta selezionati

 

english

  • Hotel Villa Carlotta Taormina

    Hotel Villa Carlotta Taormina

    Charming Luxury Accommodation 4 Stars Superior Hotel Solarium Swimming Pool Taormina Sicily Italy

  • Amalfi Transfer Tour

    Amalfi Transfer Tour

    Amalfi Coast Transfers and Excursions, Lemon Tour, Exclusive Tour and transfer to Train Station and Naples and Rome Airport, Amalficoast...

  • Hotel Morfeo Milan

    Hotel Morfeo Milan

    Hotel, Quality Accommodation, Gym, Milan

  • Hotel Parsifal Ravello

    Hotel Parsifal Ravello

    3 Stars Hotel Accommodation Exclusive Events Weddings Ravello Amalfi Coast Neapolitan Riviera Salerno Campania Italy

  • Palazzo Verone Relais Amalficoast

    Palazzo Verone Relais Amalficoast

    Charming Bed and Breakfast Accommodation Pontone Scala Amalficoast Salerno Neapolitan Riviera Italy

you are here: Home More About Syracuse and the Pantalica rock necropolis

Stay

Visit a locality browsing the menu on the left. In each Italy area you can then choose the best touristical structures we are proposing.

Most viewed in Italy

  • Santa Croce Luxury Villa - Amalfi

    As the smooth curves of a Mediterranean woman, who knows how to surprise and conquer, revealing, piece after piece, her wild and untamed nature, so the Amalfi coast hides inside its soul, delicate and virile at the same time, a sensuality that manifests...

  • Sunland Travel and Accommodation Amalfi Coast

    Sunland since 1979 is the leading tour operator for ground hanling services on Amalfi Coast, Cilento and Neapolitan Riviera. Sunland is the partner of some of the biggest tour operator world wide. Our attentive staff is at your service for: Hotel accomodation...

  • Amalfi Coast Destination Shore Excursions, Tours & Transfers

    The Amalfi Coast, suspended between sea and Sky, is a land of an amazing beauty. Our wish, having the pleasure to be your driver/guide, is to share with you the traditions, art, history, landscapes and the beauty that makes this land, " The Divine Amalfi...

  • Amalfi Vacation Amalfi Coast

    Self-catering villas and apartments on the Amalfi Coast with pool, access to the sea and air conditioning. Amalfi Vacation owns and manages all the Amalfi Coast villas shown on the website. We are specialists in luxury villas and self-catering apartments...

  • Hotel Santa Caterina Amalfi

    Located on the famous AmalfiCoast drive, a few minutes from the famous town of Amalfi, the Santa Caterina enjoys a panoramic coastal setting of incomparable beauty. The history of this special resort is as impressive as its surroundings. In 1880, Giuseppe...

Print this page Send to a friend by e-mail

Share:
fb-like
g-plus

Syracuse and the Pantalica rock necropolis

Certainly there are monuments, from different epochs and in different styles, bearing witness to a glorious past, attempts being made to recover the memory of it and respect for it. But also sea, clear and rich in flora and fauna, luxuriant papyri, more and more intense cultural life, craft activities and artists' studios, and gastronomy. There are so many things that are interesting about Syracuse, the last place, chronologically, to be declared World Heritage by UNESCO. This is undoubtedly a recognition of the historical prestige of this city that for a long time was one of the capitals of the Mediterranean. But it is also a recognition of its determination to once again play a major role in the Mediterranean today, also, indeed above all, through the recovery and valorisation of the signs of the past. Which means not only Magna Graecia, but also Swabian and Baroque, art nouveau and modern architectures. A ferment of rebirth is running through Ortygia, the oldest part of the city, where prehistoric peoples settled well before the Greeks. On this islet that, at the centre of the water on which the city looks out, was once the stronghold of the tyrant Dionysius I, one of the most important characters in ancient Sicilian history, roads, piazzas, houses, churches and buildings are being restructured, transformed and opened to the public, and hotels, pubs, eating and drinking places of every kind are multiplying. All this is for a night life that is a worthy conclusion to a day spent visiting monuments: the Neapolis, with the imposing Greek theatre where every year classical performances are done, the altar of Hiero, the latomias with the famous "Dionysius' Ear." Then there is the area of the Epipolis, with the little San Giovanni Evangelista church, over an immense network of palaeo-Christian catacombs, and the modern sanctuary devoted to the miraculous Madonna of Tears. There are the museums, including the archaeological one, the biggest in Sicily and one of the most important in Italy, and the Regional Gallery, at which there are authentic treasures like the Annunciation by Antonello da Messina and the Burial ofSaint Lucy by Caravaggio. And last but not least there is Ortygia, with irregular little medieval streets gathered around the elegant cathedral square, one of the most beautiful in Italy, all surrounded by splendid buildings and dominated by the cathedral, whose Baroque façade hides the structure of an ancient Greek temple. Here the cult of the virgin martyr St. Lucy, the highly venerated patron saint, replaced that of the goddess Athena, and the traces of the ancient architecture are placed side by side with the more modern architecture in splendid syncretism. On the islet one walks very slowly, looking up to admire the stone volutes and the wrought iron balconies of the Baroque buildings, but also allowing the gaze to wander on the sea, which appears every now and then, sparkling like a mirror. One visits Maniace Castle and the Jewish miqwe (tubs for purification baths), the oldest in Europe, and one halts at the spring of Arethusa , which according to legend is a nymph who was turned into a spring to escape too ardent a suitor. One goes shopping and one stops for lunch, an ice cream or a snack. One can also go swimming, taking advantage of the little flights of steps that go down to the surface of the sea from the bastions, the sea now being clean thanks to the sewerage having been redone, and one sunbathes comfortably stretched out on the solariums reaching out over the sea. From Ortygia one can set out in a wooden fishing boat to go to visit the caves on the Maddalena peninsula , whose extremity for some time now has been protected through the Plemmirio marine reserve; here you can go scuba diving or snorkelling to discover splendid seabeds. Not far away there are the boats that go up the river Ciane , a pleasant and relaxing trip, but also one of great botanical interest, allowing you to observe the only wild colony of papyruses in Europe, as these grow along the banks of this river. From Syracuse you can also get to another important place which was declared World Heritage in 2005: the Pantalica necropolis. This is a place of wild beauty, at the confluence of the rivers Anapo and the Calcinara, which in addition to the archaeological interest is also interesting in terms of nature and landscape thanks to the richness and variety of the plant and animal species that live on the banks of the watercourse. Here the rocky bastion of Pantalica rises high over the deep valley hewn out by the water, in the shade of plane trees and oleanders, in its millennial flow. Here in the stone, the Siculi, the prehistoric people that lived in Sicily before the advent of Greek colonization, dug out almost five thousand graves. It is not known for certain how they succeeded in doing so, since in the Bronze Age, from which the necropolis dates, the Siculi did not know iron, and therefore they had to use axes or ancient systems that combined water and fire. The workers were suspended in the air, tied to ropes by the waist, or astride a beam, on tottering scaffolding. The corpses, in turn, were pulled up or lowered with ropes, "a grisly spectacle seen from afar and from the opposite slopes" (Paolo Orsi). With the passing of the centuries, the graves became a refuge for persecuted Christians, a hermitage and then a residence for Arabs and Norman. Then, gradually, the site was abandoned. A mysterious people remained, that of the Siculi, swallowed up by the history of other much more daring and therefore more famous people. But the Pantalica graves, though mute, hand down the memory of them, together with the scattered ruins of the mysterious Anaktoron, the prince's palace, a perfect geometry of walls of stone whose splendours the imagination can only guess at. This is all that is left of a city that must have existed, and who knows what it was like.

(source: Sicilian World Heritage)

Choose language

italiano

english