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According
to legend, Erice, son of Venus and Neptune, founded a small town on top
of a mountain (750 metres above sea level) more than three thousand years
ago. The founder of modern history - i.e. the recording of events in
a methodic and chronological sequence as they really happened without
reference to mythical causes - the great Thucydides (~500 B.C.), writing
about events connected with the conquest of Troy (1183 B.C.) and the
escape on the sea towards the West, said that the Elymi - founders of
Erice - were survivors from the destruction of Troy. This inspired Virgil
to describe the arrival of the Troyan royal family in Erice and the burial
of Anchise, by his son Enea, on the coast below Erice. Homer (~1000 B.C.),
Theocritus (~300 B.C.), Polybius (~200 B.C.), Virgil (~50 B.C.), Horace
(~20 B.C.), and others have celebrated this magnificent spot in Sicily
in their poems. During seven centuries (XIII-XIX) the town of Erice was
under the leadership of a local oligarchy, whose wisdom assured a long
period of cultural development and economic prosperity which in turn
gave rise to the many churches, monasteries and private palaces which
you see today.
In Erice you can admire the Castle of Venus, the Cyclopean Walls (~800 B.C.) and the Gothic Cathedral (~1300 A.D.). Erice is at present a mixture of ancient and medieval architecture. Other masterpieces of ancient civilization are to be found in the neighbourhood: at Motya (Phoenician), Segesta (Elymian), and Selinunte (Greek). On the Aegadian Islands - theatre of the decisive naval battle of the first Punic War (264-241 B.C.) - suggestive neolithic and paleolithic vestiges are still visible: the grottoes of Favignana, the carvings and murals of Levanzo. Splendid beaches are to be found at San Vito Lo Capo, Scopello, and Cornino, and a wild and rocky coast around Monte Cofano: all at less than one hour's drive from Erice. |
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