Palazzolo Acreide

Palazzolo Acreide
Country	Italy
region	Sicily
Free community consortium	Syracuse  (SR)
Local name	Palazzolu Acrèidi / Palazzuolu
Coordinates	37 ° 4 '  N , 14 ° 54'  E Coordinates: 37 ° 4 '0 "  N , 14 ° 54' 0"  E
height	670  m slm
surface	86.34 km²
Residents	8,481 (Dec 31, 2019)
Population density	98 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	96010
prefix	0931
ISTAT number	089015
Popular name	Palazzolesi
Patron saint	San Paolo Apostolo
Website	Palazzolo Acreide

Palazzolo Acreide is an Italian municipality in the Free Community Consortium Syracuse in the autonomous region of Sicily with 8,481 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019). It is one of the late baroque towns in the Val di Noto that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002 . Palazzolo Acreide is a member of the I borghi più belli d'Italia association (The Most Beautiful Places in Italy)

Location and dates

Palazzolo Acreide is located 43 km southwest of Syracuse in the Monti Iblei on Tellaro . The inhabitants work mainly in agriculture, cattle and sheep breeding and in the dairy industry.

The neighboring municipalities are Buscemi , Canicattini Bagni , Cassaro , Floridia , Modica ( RG ), Noto , Syracuse , Solarino and Sortino .

The Palazzolo Acreide station was on the narrow-gauge railway line Syracuse-Ragusa .

history

664 BC The city of Akrai was founded by inhabitants of the city of Syracuse in order to protect the roads to the cities in the south and to secure trade with the interior of Sicily. Towards the end of Roman rule, the city lost its importance. After the destruction by the Arabs, it was abandoned. In the 12th century, a new town called Palazzolo was formed around a castle built by the Normans . This was destroyed in a severe earthquake in 1693 and then rebuilt in the Sicilian baroque style.

Buildings

A street in Palazzolo Acreide

The theater

In the town

• Chiesa Madonna Annunziata, church with a richly decorated baroque facade
• Basilica di San Paolo, church with a facade by Vincenzo Sinatra and a high bell tower
• Chiesa di San Sebastiano, cathedral of the city with a large outside staircase
• Palazzo Iudica, palace with one of the longest baroque balconies in Sicily
• Casa Museo di Antonino Uccello, ethnographic museum with household items, costumes and cabaret
• Dammusi

Out of town

The excavation area of ​​the ancient city of Akrai has a size of 36 hectares. A wide main road was uncovered, which is crossed by parallel side streets at irregular intervals. The theater overlooking Mount Etna was built in the 3rd century BC. Built by Hieron II in BC and renovated in Roman times. It was relatively small and only held about 600 people, but it is one of the best preserved theaters of antiquity. Today students put on ancient plays here every May. Two temples have also been preserved, a Doric temple of Aphrodite and the temple of Ferali , as well as the remains of ancient stone quarries with caves and graves. In the Valletta valley there are the twelve Santoni , large stone figures from the 3rd century BC. BC, which were originally painted and decorated with metal ornaments and served the Cybelekult .

Sons and daughters

• Francesco Cardinal Carpino (* 1905; † 1993), Archbishop of Palermo and later Cardinal of the Curia
• Giuseppe Fava (* 1925; † 1984), writer and playwright
• Silvia Salemi (* 1978), singer

supporting documents

1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
2. ^ I borghi più belli d'Italia. Borghipiubelliditalia.it, accessed June 19, 2017 (Italian). 

literature

• Christian Hülsen : Akrai 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 1192.
• Giuseppe Voza:  Akrai (Acre) Sicily . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .

Web links

Commons : Palazzolo Acreide  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Palazzolo Acreide
• Palazzolo Acreide