Agrigento
Agrigento or Akragas was founded in the 6th century BC by Greek settlers originating from Rhodes and Crete. They left unstable Greece, that suffered from civil war, famine and social unrest. Groups of settlers spread out over the Mediterranean, with the purpose to build their own and better Greece abroad.
These colonies acted politically independent from the motherland and each other.
The city of Akragas flourished especially in the 5th century BC, alternating between tyranny and democracy. Most of the remaining temples were built in this period. Its position was lost in 406, when the Carthaginians all but destroyed it. It was rebuilt, but suffered defeat again in 210 when Akragas was besieged by the Romans.
Visit April 2006
Driving in Sicily for sure is different on a working day: it took me 3 hours to get from Noto to Agrigento, about 150 km. First there were the hills around Ragusa, which steepness proved too much for the loaded trucks. And then came the rather hellish outskirts of Gela (an even earlier Greek settlement than Agrigento, how times have changed!), where every car just seemed to want to park on the other side of the street and where your eyes are blinded by a forest of screaming billboards. All this made me arrive in Agrigento around 11.30, not the best of times because of the sun and the scores of tour buses.
I started my sightseeing at the top, at the archeological museum. The museum is pleasant enough, but specializes on vases a bit too much to my taste. The large Atlas statue however is definitely worth a look.
The ruins are situated downhill, and split in two parts by a busy road. The best preserved temple is the Temple of Concord, partly under scaffolding nowadays. The rest of the large grounds is scattered with stones, some forming sacrificial altars large enough to slaughter 100 oxen at one time.
All in all, I was a bit disappointed with Agrigento. Having seen already quite a number of Greek archeological remains, one gets a bit spoiled and these certainly aren’t the best ones for a superficial visit. The site is applauded by ICOMOS as an authentic example of Greek colonization (and not Hellenistic from a later age). Personally, I was much more impressed by Paestum, also a former Greek colony on Italian soil.
More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery
Reviews
Douglas Scully (USA):
No visit to Sicily is complete without a visit to Agrigento. The temple of Concordia is one of the most completely preserved Greek temples to be found anywhere. (Its preservation is due to its being turned into a church.) Just to see it alone is worth the trip. At night it is lit by floodlights and makes a marvelous sight. Besides this temple there is much more Greek history to be seen here. There are several ruined temples and a sacred spring site. Nearby the spring is a temple made into a Byzantine church with a rare well preserverd temple altar. The ruins of probably the largest Greek temple ever attempted is in Agrigento. It had human figures as supporting columns which I think is unique in Greek temples. You can see one of these lying on the ground. Besides Greek remains there are some interesting grave excavations and an area of the Roman city exposed. I was lucky to visit in May when the whole area is ablaze with beautiful wildflowers. |
| Date posted: April 2006 |
Graeme Ramshaw ():
 There are many places in Sicily where you feel like you've somehow ended up in Greece; Agrigento is one of those places. The valley complex has several well-preserved temples and the ruins of others that were among the biggest ever built, but I couldn't help but be somewhat disappointed. I was more impressed by the temples and acropolis of Selinunte (just up the coast to the west)which gave a much better insight into life in a 5th century BC Greek colony. Still, Agrigento is a very important archaeological site and well worth a visit for the day. I highly recommend the drive from Palermo; some of the landscape is just gorgeous. |
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