the ancient segesta

marvelous ruins

Segesta is an ancient city, which ruins are located in the territory of Trapani, in the western part of Sicily. Segesta was the most important city of the territory belonging to the people called Elymi, who probably founded the city in the IX century before Christ. At that time, so the period before the arrival of the Greeks during the so called bronze age, the whole island was divided into three parts: the Siculi in the east, the Sicani in the center and the Elymi in the west.

The origin of these people is not certain, but according to the legend, the city was founded by refugees coming from Troy, the city in the middle east destroyed by the Greeks during the famous war. Most probably, though, these people were coming from the central Italy. To the same region and culture belongs also the city of Erice.

Segesta, for most of its history, has been in constant war with Selinunte. While Selinunte was at that time allied with Siracusa, Segesta looked for help from Athen, that tried to invade Sicily and destroy Siracusa, but failed.

Even coming from a different culture and different origin, the intense contacts with the Greek people who occupied Sicily pushed Segesta to adopt a lot of the greek culture, which is now visible in the architecture style of the city.

The city was later occupied by the Romans, followed by the Arabs and the Normans, but then mostly abandoned and only re-discovered during the XVI century. That is why currently the ruins mix Greek historical sights like the temple and the theater, with rests of mosks and a medieval castle.

But surely the two main sight of the place are the Temple and the Greek Theater.

The temple, extremely well preserved, also thanks to a restoration done in the XVIII century, seems to have not been finished, most probably due to the war. This is visible by the fact that the columns have not been carved with the usual stripes and the blocks of the basement still have small rock protrusions used for transportation and that were usually flatten after during the refinement. The temple is in perfect Greek style and most probably Greek artists and workers were used to make it.

The rest of the city developes on the montain next to the temple (Monte Barbaro), on top of which we find the greek theater, also quite well preserved, even though no much is left of the 2-floor stage. The theater, still in use today, can host up to 5000 people and can profit from a unique view over the hills and the gulf of the city Castellammare del Golfo.

Next to the theater is possible to see the remains of the castle and other medieval constructions.

To go from the temple to the theater is possible to walk up the mountain or take a shuttle bus.