Six kilometers from Aidone, in the district of Serra Orlando,
is one of the most important archaeological sites of Europe,
Morgantina.
Discovered in 1955 by a team from the American
University of Princeton, during excavation campaigns, still on
going today, which uncovered a series of treasures belonging
to civilizations which succeeded one another in Sicily.
The
first settlement belongs to an Italic tribe, the Morgeti,
which settled here in prehistoric times, giving the town its
name.
The town became Greek in the 6th century BC and reached
its maximum splendor between the 4th and the 3rd centuries
BC, as can be seen from the monuments uncovered. Try to walk
along the "stoa" thinking of the life which bustled under this
very same sky.
Imagine yourselves on the steps of a thousand places during
major performances, which nowadays, in summer, are regularly
repeated.
But Morgantina is not just a theatre.
Go in search
of the ancient lava grindstones, the aristocratic homes, above
the space reserved for the market place and its shops, stop in
front on of a house and its floor writings wishing long life,
done in mosaic, visit the house of Ganimede with its courtyard
surrounded by stone columns, try to imagine the funeral rites
at the necropolis and the furnace and the crowd which
fervently recited prayers in the hundred feet long temple.
At
this point you could possibly go back to the museum of Aidone
to see the features of the veiled woman, the impenetrable face of Persephone,
Venus bathing and the magnificent woman lying down, since now you know where
they came from.
Courtesy of Enna Official Tourist Board APIT Enna
