Syracuse Culture

Syracuse has an unusually direct relationship with its own antiquity: the ancient things here are still being used rather than only preserved.

Greek drama in a Greek theatre

Since 1914 the Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico has staged classical tragedy in the ancient theatre at Neapolis, in the open air, in the late spring and early summer. The plays performed are those of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, some of which had their first performances in this same theatre — Aeschylus is known to have worked in Syracuse. It is the longest-running festival of its kind and it is a serious theatrical undertaking rather than a heritage display.

A temple that became a cathedral

The Duomo is the Temple of Athena of the fifth century BC, converted to a church in the seventh century AD by walling up the spaces between the columns rather than demolishing anything. The Doric columns are visible inside and out, still carrying the building, with a baroque facade added after the 1693 earthquake. It has been a place of worship without interruption for around two and a half thousand years.

Caravaggio

Caravaggio, on the run from Malta, painted the Burial of Saint Lucy in Syracuse in 1608 — an enormous, almost empty canvas dominated by two gravediggers. Lucy was born here and is the city's patron.

Papyrus

Grown and worked here since it was introduced in antiquity, and still made into paper by a handful of workshops, which is the one craft the city is known for.

The baroque next door

The same 1693 earthquake that gave the Duomo its facade levelled the towns inland, and the rebuilding produced the late baroque of the Val di Noto — Noto, Modica, Ragusa, Scicli and others — inscribed by UNESCO as a single group in 2002. Noto is about forty minutes away, and the group is the obvious extension to a stay here.