AGRIGENTO

Itinerary No. 8 - One day excursions programme

We leave Patti to Agrigento, a town on south-west coast of Sicily, famous for its group of ancient Greek Temples, built in the 5th century B. C. on the site known as the "Valley of Temples" along which there is the vast Roman necropolis with the Christian catacombs probably dating back from the 4th century. 

 Like Syracuse, Agrigento, with its Churches that once were pagan Temples, is one of the most important centre of the lost paleo-Christian civilisations.
Visits will be made to:
Santa Maria dei Greci: This Church was founded on the site of a Doric temple in the 5th century A. D. - Inside the Church one can see the insides of the columns-now flattened-in the wall on either side.
San Biagio: This little medieval Church incorporates the Temple of Demeter built in the 5th century B. C.
The Cathedral: Built in the year 1000, the Church was transformed more then once between then and the 17th century.
Santo Spirito Convent: Founded in the late 13th century, this convent was later totally restructed. The Church was largelly remodelled in the Baroque stile in the early 17th century.

San Nicola: This attractive little Church, next to the Archaeological Museum, overlooking the Valley of Temples, was built in the 13th century. It contains, in one of the chapel, the Sarcophagus of Phaedra, originally in the Cathedral, a roman work of the 2nd century A. D. 

The Valley of Temple: In the group of the ancient Greek Temples, the Temple of Concorde, the glory of the Valley of Temples, built between 450 an 440 B. C. owes its preservation largely to its conversion into a Church in the 6th century A. D. - Back to Patti.