Day 3 - In search of perfection
The day starts early. We leave the east coast and head for Agrigrento, in the southwest, near the African coast.
After a two-hour drive we stop for a 'pit stop' in a cute little railroad station that looks like it has come straight out of a movie, and then we continue our way to Piazza Armerina in the center of the island. Just outside the city, the Villa Romana del Casale is best known for its many, very well-preserved floor mosaics, including hunting scenes, mythical stories and the so-called bikini girls. There is still doubt as to who the builder of the villa was, but it was probably Emperor Maximilian who used the villa as a summer residence. One can be sure of the latter, since there is no heating provided.
Almost all rooms of the Villa Romana del Casale have mosaics on the floor. In total, this concerns approximately 3,500 m² of floor space. Most of the mosaics are well preserved. Each mosaic stone or glass particle is approximately 1x1 cm in size. They were laid by masters from Tunisia, who brought the material themselves. The hunting scenes are best known, as are the so-called bikini girls: the world's oldest depiction of women in a bikini of sorts.
The mosaics are particularly well preserved because the Villa was covered in a thick layer of sand after a landslide. In any case, they are the most beautiful mosaics I have ever seen.
After our lunch we continue our journey and drive another 1.5 hours to our next stop near Agrigento. This is where the 'Valley of the Temples' is located. This ancient Greek site has been beautifully preserved. This is due to the warm, dry climate and the fact that very strong earthquakes have never occurred here. Also, the new city was not built in the valley but on the ridge a little further on and the stones here were left undisturbed. In the meantime most of the clouds have dissapeared and we get to see a beautiful blue sky. We start our walk of about 1.5 km at the temple of Hera, the first of the twelve temples already discovered, but where it is believed that there are many more. The temple of Hera, wife of Zeus, like the other temples, was built from local stone by the Greeks and then whitewashed to give the impression that they were made of marble.
We walk a little further along the necropolis : it first served as a city wall, but the Byzantines made use of this to make holes in the wall and to bury their dead (especially the rich and notable). Then we come to the highlight of this visit : the Temple of Concordia.
This temple ranks third worldwide on the list of best preserved temples, after the Parthenon in Athens and a temple located south of Naples. Since these two temples were largely rebuilt and the Temple of Concordia was only slightly restored, this temple should certainly be higher in the list. The good condition of the temple was partly made possible by the fact that it was modified in the 4th century to make it a Christian church. Not only is it the best preserved, but the Greeks also did everything to make it the most beautiful at the time. For example, three optical corrections were used : normally the lowest stone of the columns was the thickest, here it is the third (approximately in the middle), the floor was built concave so that it bulges slightly and furthermore the two outer columns were turned inwards. If you look at the temple from a distance, all this is straightened out by the optical correction of your eyes and you get the perfection. One mystery remains: it is not known to whom this temple is dedicated. Normally temples are named after gods, but nothing has been found in and around the temple. Only the word 'Concordia' was found on a stone. Not directly a Greek god, but the Latin word for unity. This riddle will probably never be solved…
Our next stop is the Temple of Hercules, or at least it is supposed to be his temple. This is based on the writings of Cicero, who in one of his works describes a temple that is located on this site and also complies with the description.
Finally, we get to see the Temple of Zeus. The supreme god always gets the largest of course, but this one is really an oversized temple or what is left of it. This temple probably did not survive an earthquake.
It is about the size of a football field, with columns as high as 17 m. Because it is so large, the columns were not built freestanding, but half built into the walls and atlants (stone carriers) are used to support the top. Like all Greek temples built in Sicily, these are Doric temples with the typical columns ending in a triangle and a chapter on top. Six columns are always used at the front, along the side there are 13 to 17.
Today perfection was key in this perfect program. The perfect temple and the perfect mosaics. Can anything surpass perfection? The next days will tell.
Comments
Post a Comment