I was really looking forward to visiting Siracusa. Before I left home, I had read about the ancient mikve on the island of Ortigia (part of Siracusa) and the Greek theater and Roman amphitheater in the archaeological park. I was eager to wander around the former Giudecca (Jewish quarter) and the port.
Siracusa was founded by Greek settlers in 733 BCE. Its location on the Ionian Sea and its natural harbor made it a major Mediterranean trading center. At one time, its population numbered 600,000-700,000 and it was considered the capital of Magna Graecia (greater Greece). The entire city is now designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Unfortunately, the weather gods didn’t cooperate. The night before our planned visit to Siracusa, I’d checked the forecast before getting into bed in my Ragusa hotel room. It showed rain on the coast but I was cautiously optimistic. During the night, I heard crashes of thunder echoing through the valley. However, when we set out after breakfast, the rain had stopped and there was even a hint of blue in the sky. Just in case the forecast proved to be accurate, I tossed a rain jacket and umbrella into my day pack and decided that closed shoes would keep me drier than sandals. A little rain wasn’t going to interfere with my plans.
It was a two-hour drive to Siracusa and by the time we got off the bus, thick gray clouds hung ominously low in the sky. I tried to ignore the raindrops that started falling as we followed our local guide, Elisa, across a short bridge that connected the mainland of the city to island of Ortigia.
The first stop on our walking tour was the Temple of Apollo. This Doric temple dates back to 590 BCE, making it the oldest Greek temple in Siracusa. It was converted into a church by the Byzantines and then to a mosque by the Arabs before being restored as a church by the Normans. When Sicily was under Spanish rule, the building became a military barracks. Today there’s not much left of the structure.
The Neapolis Archaeological Park, a couple of kilometers away, promised a better opportunity to view Greek and Roman ruins. However, as we were leaving the Temple of Apollo, Elisa announced that the park was closed due to the inclement weather.
Still, there was more to see on Ortigia. I slipped into my rain jacket and trudged off after Elisa to the Piazza Archimedes. This plaza is named for the famous Greek scientist, mathematician, engineer, and inventor who was born in Siracusa in 287 BCE. Archimedes is remembered for discovering the laws of the lever and pulleys, for inventing a highly accurate catapult, for inspiring Galileo and Isaac Newton, and much, much more.
Elisa pointed out the fountain in the piazza. Although the statue of the Greek goddess Artemis (the Roman Diana) looks like a classical sculpture, it’s actually a work made of reinforced concrete and dates back only to the early 1900s.
A short walk beyond Archimedes Square brought us to an old part of town where the Giudecca (the Jewish neighborhood) was located.
Jews may have first settled in Sicily over 2000 years ago and by the Middle Ages, had a presence in over 50 cities and towns on the island. In fact, at one time, the Jewish population of Sicily may have numbered 100,000 people. The largest community was in Palermo, but the second largest (about 5000 people) was in Ortigia, where Jews made up about a quarter of the population. Of course, centuries of Jewish life in Sicily came to an abrupt end in the 1490s, when all Jews were expelled from the island by the new Spanish rulers.
At one time, there were 12 synagogues on Ortigia. Following the expulsion order, one of them became the present-day church of St. John the Baptist.
During 1980s restoration work on a nearby medieval palazzo once owned by the Jewish Bianchi family, a mikve (Jewish ritual bath) dating from the Byzantine era was discovered deep underground, behind the church. Fed by an underground spring of fresh water, it is believed to be the oldest surviving mikve in Europe. dating back to the 6th or 7th century CE. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to tour the site, which is privately owned.
Today, the narrow lanes of the former Jewish quarter are filled with trendy shops, cafés, and restaurants. They were also rapidly becoming filled with puddles as the rain increased in intensity. It was time to get the umbrella out.
We walked quickly in the direction of the Piazza del Duomo to see a cathedral with a fascinating history. The building started out in 480 BCE as a Greek temple dedicated to Athena. When you walk along the side of the structure, you can easily see the original ribbed Doric columns.
In the 5th century CE, the Byzantines added walls between the columns and the building became a church. The Normans added crenellations to the façade in the 11th century. In the aftermath of the 1693 earthquake, the cathedral was redesigned and rebuilt in the late Baroque style. On the front of the cathedral, the columns with their Corinthian capitals date from this period.
Eager to escape the rain, we stepped inside the cathedral. Although the sanctuary is clearly Baroque, the ancient Greek columns remain an integral part of the interior. One of the chapels contains relics, including a few bones, from St. Lucia, the patron saint of the city. She was killed by the Romans in 304 CE at the age of 20.
When we walked out of the cathedral, I glanced at the ornate palazzos facing the Piazza del Duomo. On one of them, three flags were flying. On the left, you see the flag of the European Union; Italy’s flag is in the center, and Sicily’s flag, with the Trinacria, is on the right. This symbol dates back to the ancient Greeks. It means “three-pointed” and refers to triangular shape of the island of Sicily. At the center of the image is the head of Medusa (a gorgon with snakes for hair) surrounded by three flexed legs and three stalks of wheat. Medusa is associated with the Greek goddess Athena, patron goddess of Sicily.
We managed to squeeze in a quick lunch and a bit of shopping, and then sloshed over to the Pool of Aretusa, a small body of water near the harbor. It’s the only place in Europe where papyrus grows.
I wish we could have lingered in Siracusa but thunder and lightning, a steady downpour, and drenched clothes made us hurry back to the bus and get on our way to our next destination, the city of Catania.
No comments:
Post a Comment