Henry Swinburne, Travels in the Two Sicilies, in the Years 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780. 2nd edition (London: T. Cadell & P. Elmsly, 1790).
Table of contents / or click on map link below
Sections
Girgenti:
XL. Description of the Ancient City
XLI. Ditto
Syracuse:
XLVII. Acradina
XLVIII. NeapolisHenry Swinburne (1743-1803), with his wife, travelled extensively in Europe and formed a close acquaintance with a number of writers, and was welcomed by several Catholic monarchs. His eldest son became a page for Maria Antoinette in Paris. He published Travels through Spain (1779) as well as the present book on Italy. He played a diplomatic role in Paris during 1796. He died in Trinidad.
GIRGENTI
SECTION XL
 40.1 |
I devoted the following day to a regular survey of the ancient city of Agrigentum, the principal part of which lay in the vale; the present town of Girgenti occupies the mountains on which the citadel of Cocalus stood. | |
| 40.2 |
It was scarcely possible to be more judicious and fortunate than the Agrigentines were in the choice of a situation for a large city; they were here provided with every requisite for defence, pleasure, and comfort of life; a natural wall, formed by abrupt rocks, presented a strong barrier against assailants; pleasant hills sheltered them on three sides without impeding the circulation of air; before them a broad plain watered [P 15] by the Acragas, an agreeable stream from which the city took its name, gave admittance to the sea-breeze, and to a noble prospect of that awful element; the port or emporium lay in view at the mouth of the river, and probably the road across the flat was lined with gay and populous suburbs. | |
| 40.3 |
The hospitality and parade for which the Agrigentines are celebrated in history were supported by a brisk and extensive commerce, that also gave an air of life and opulence to all the environs. So strong is this support to a commonwealth, that Agrigentum was able to resist many shocks of adversity, and always rise again with fresh splendour after the most outrageous storms; it was, however, crushed by the general fall of Grecian liberty; the feeble remnants of its population, which had survived so many calamities, were at length driven out of its walls by the Saracens, and obliged to lock themselves up for safety among the bleak and inaccessible rocks of the present city. | |
| 40.4 |
[P 16] The day was as favourable for my purpose as could be wished, clear and warm; every object glowed with the brightness of the sunbeams, and all nature seemed to resume new life on the approach of spring: the tints in the landscape were strong, and imbrowned with the shades of winder; but the quantity of evergreens, and the patches of young corn, gave sufficient variety to the picture; every gratification I enjoyed in examining the noble vestiges of old maginificence was enhanced by the sweet temperature of the atmosphere. | |
| 40.5 |
We began our rounds at the north-east angle, with some foundations of large regular stones, upon which a church has been erected; a road appears hewn in the solid rock for the convenience of the votaries that visited this temple in ancient days; it was then dedicated to Ceres and her daughter Prosperpine, the peculiar patroness of Sicily. Bishop Blaise has succeeded to their honors. | |
| 40.6 |
[P 17] From hence we continued our walk to the south-eastern corner, where the ground, rising gradually, ends in a bold eminence, which is crowned with majestic columns, the ruins of a temple said to have been consecrated to Juno: it was raised upon a lofty base of regular stone work, in the heart of which was contrived a gallery either for apartments or store-houses. On the west front only (for as the temple was placed on the brow of a hill, the elevation of the ground rendered it unnecessary on the eastern aspect) a grand flight of steps leads up to the pronaos or vestibule. The fronts consisted of six fluted Doric columns, the flanks of eleven plain ones; of these few are now standing, many having been thrown down by earthquakes within the memory of man; what remains is in a tottering condition, and threatens soon to be prostrate with the rest. Their situation on a gently swelling eminence, rising out of a wood of fruit-trees, its sides dotted with single trees, [P 18] presents a most delightful subject for the pencil of a landscape-painter. |
 Temple of Juno, east elevation |
| 40.7 |
Here we altered our direction, and moved from this temple,
which stood at the south-east angle of the city-walls, along the brow of
the hill towards the west. We soon reached the building commonly called
the temple of Concord . |
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| 40.8 |
[P 19] The stone of this and the other buildings is the same as that of the neighbouring mountains and cliffs, a conglutination of sea-sand and shells, full of perforations, of a hard and durable texture, and a deep reddish-brown in colour. This Doric temple has all its columns, entablature, pediments, and walls entire; only part of the roof is wanting; it owes its preservation to the piety of some Christians, who have covered half the nave, and converted it into a church consecrated under the invocation of Saint Gregory, bishop of Girgenti. Six columns in front, and eleven on the sides, without the angular ones, form the colonnade, in all thirty-four. The cella has a door at each end between two columns and two pilasters, and in each side-wall six small doors, and a stair-case that led up to the rooms in the roof. The pediments are much flatter than those used by the moderns, not being elevated above twenty-two degrees. The entablement is very large in its proportions; the columns taper regularly without any swelling, from a [P 20] diameter of four feet three inches to one of three feet five inches. |
 Temple of Concord, east elevation |
| 40.9 |
This majestic edifice stands in the most striking point of view imaginable, on the brink of a precipice, which formed the defence of the city along the whole southern exposure; from every part of the country the temple of Concord appears the most conspicuous figure of a beautiful picture. |
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Swinburne, View of the ruins of Agrigentum
from the Tomb of Thero (facing p. 21)
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Temples of Concord (right centre) and
Juno (centre left), with part of the Tomb of Theron (right)
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SECTION XLI
| 40.1 |
From hence we proceeded in the same direction between rows of sepulchres cut in the rock wherever it admitted of being excavated by the hand of man, or was so already by that of nature; some masses of it are hewn into the shape of coffins, others drilled full of small square holes employed in a different mode of interment, and serving as receptacles of urns. One ponderous piece of the rock lies in an extraordinary position: by the failure of its foundation, or the shock of an earthquake, it has been loosed from the general quarry, and rolled down the declivity, where it now remains supine with the cavities turned upwards. |
 Rock tombs between Juno and Concord |
| 40.2 |
Our next station was at a single column that marks the confused heap of moss-grown ruins belonging to the temple of Hercules. It stood on a projecting rock above a chasm in the ridge, [P 22] which was cut through for a passage to the emporium. | |
| 40.3 |
We followed this road over some hills to the building usually called the tomb of Thero. It is surrounded by aged olive-trees, which cast a wild irregular shade over the ruin. The situation is solitary, the rocks appear under the temple of Concord in the back ground, and the clusters of beautiful trees form a variety of masses along the banks to which the magic touches of a Salvator could alone do justice. | |
| 40.4 |
This edifice rather inclines to the pyramidical shape, and consists at present of a triple plinth and a base supporting a square pedestal: upon this plain solid foundation is raised a second order, having a window in each front, and two Ionic pilasters at each angle; they are crowned with an entablature of the Doric order, of which the triglyphs and metopes remain, but the cornice is fallen; it is consequently impossible to divine how the building was terminated at the summit. Notwithstanding this confusion of ornaments [P 23] and proportions, the monument has great elegance in its form and style. Its inside is divided into a vault, a ground-room, and one in the Ionic story, communicating with each other by means of a small internal stair-case. | |
| 40.5 |
From hence I wandered down into the plain to inspect the fragments of what is called the temple of Esculapius; part of two columns and two pilasters with an intermediate wall support the end of a farm house, and were, I suppose, the front of the cella. | |
| 40.6
|
From the plain I returned to Agrigentum by the same road, and pursuing the track of the walls towards the west, arrived at a spot which [P 24] is covered with the gigantic remains of the temple of Jupiter the Olympian, minutely described by Diodorus Siculus. It may literally be said that it has not one stone left upon another, and it is barely possible, with the help of much conjecture, to discover the traces of its plan and dimensions. Diodorus calls it the largest temple in the whole island, but adds that the calamities of war caused the work to be abandoned before the roof could be put on; and that the Agigentines were ever after reduced to such a state of poverty and dependence, that they never had it in their power to finish this superb monument of the taste and opulence of their ancestors. The length of this temple was three hundred and seventy Greek feet, its breadth sixty, and its height two hundred and twenty, exclusive of the foundations or basement-story; the extent and solidity of its vaults and under-works were wonderful; its spacious porticos and exquisite sculpture were suited to the grandeur of the whole. It was not built in the usual style [P 25] of Sicilian temples with a cella of massive walls and a perystile, but was designed in a mixt taste with half columns let into the walls on the outside, the inside exhibiting a plain surface. |
 Ruins of the Temple of Zeus (Jupiter the Olympian) |
SECTION XLVII
ACRADINA
| 47.1 |
I proceeded to Acradina, which extends over two considerable levels, the first low and even with the island, the other, divided from the first by a natural wall of rocks, lies on the same heights with Tycha. As I left my lodgings early, in order to spend the whole day in the old city, I formed a regular plan of riding round, close to the walls, measuring and drawing every material object. In the low grounds stands the church of St. John, one of the oldest churches in Sicily; it covers the [P 92] entrance of immense catacombs, where the ancient Syracusans buried their dead; the primitive faithful are supposed to have assembled here secretly in times of persecution, and also to have interred their brethren in these vaults. The pillars of the church are in the oldest, heaviest, and simplest style of Gothic, and the walls covered with very bad painting. I hastened to the vaults, which are formed in streets cut through one continued stratum of soft stone, a sediment of marine bodies. These subterraneous alleys cross each other in many directions, and are hewn with more care and regularity than the catacombs of St. Januarius at Naples; those of Rome are not to be compared with either. At stated distances I came to large circular rooms lined with stucco, and pierced at top to admit light and air. On each side of the walls are recesses cut into the rock, and in the floor of these cavities coffins of all sizes have been hollowed out, some even so small as to be fit for nothing but the reception of a cat or a [P 93] lap-dog. In some places there are twenty troughs, one behind another; skeletons have been often found in them, with a piece of money in their mouths. I saw a gold coin of the time of Icetas that was just taken out of the jaws of a body found in a tomb here. |
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| 47.2 |
From here I ascended the hill to a convent of Capuchin friars, a light neat church. When a stranger walks up to this monastery, he sees near him neither verdure nor tree; all appears one dreary rock, and little does he suspect he is within reach of extensive orchards, which by their produce yield a handsome income to the friars. No sight can be more singular than the gardens of this convent, which are in some measure subterraneous, being contained in the areas of immense excavations, made by cutting stone for the ancient city. I descended by a slope into these extraordinary bowers, where my view was confined on all sides by shaggy walls of great height, either purposely hewn into shape, or rudely figured by the corrosive [P 94] sea air. Huge masses have been broken off, and rolled on the platform, where they contribute to the composition of a most wild, yet solemn picture. The area is covered with a thick grove of trees, loaded with rich-scented blossoms and beautiful fruit; I was delighted with their variety of kinds, vigour of growth, and brilliancy of foliage; the slim branches of the pale olive were interwoven with the bushy heads of orange, lemon, bergamot and cedrat-trees, while the tender colour of the full-blown almond formed a fine contrast with the fiery buds of the pomegranate, just bursting into blow. The gardeners have skilfully increased the variety of their fruits by grafting and budding, and have procured a great diversity in their taste and colour. One of the friars brought me an orange, half of which was the original red pulp of that fruit, the other half was the tough pale flesh of the cedrato. |
 Latomia dei Cappuccini |
| 47.3 |
There are several sepulchres in these quarries, and some projections of the stone are scooped [P 95] into rings, by which I conjecture, that, after the place ceased to be used as a quarry, it was converted into a prison. | |
| 47.4 |
The vaults of this convent have the property of drying the bodies of the dead in a very short space of time; after which they are dressed in religious habits, and placed as statues in niches on each side of subterraneous alleys. |
SECTION XLVIII
[P 103]
NEAPOLIS
| 48.1... | ||
| 48.9 |
Drawing now nearer to the island, I entered the large latomiæ
on the skirts of Neapolis, a most extraordinary spot. It consists of a very
spacious court, or area, round which runs a wall of rock of great height,
so artfully cut as to cause the upper part to project very visibly out of
the perpendicular line, and thereby defeat every attempt to climb up. Near
the summit of the rock is a channel which conveys part of the waters of
the aqueduct to the city, and can with ease at any time be stopped and turned
into the latomiæ. In the centre of the court is a huge insulated stone,
and upon it the ruins of [P 104] a guard-house; vast caverns penetrate into
the heart of the rocks, and serve for salt petre works and roperies; but
the excavation that appears most worthy of our notice, and gives name to
the whole place, is that in the north-west corner, called the ear of Dionysius.
It is 18 feet wide and 58 high, and runs into the heart of the hill, in
the form of a capital S; [P 105] the sides are chisseled very smooth, and
the roof covered, gradually narrowing almost to as sharp a point as a Gothic
arch; along this point runs a groove, or channel, which served, as is supposed,
to collect the sounds that rose from the speakers below, and convey them
to a pipe in a small double cell above, where they were heard with the greatest
distinctness; but this hearing place having been too much opened and altered
has lost its virtue, as those who have been let down from the top by a rope
have found. There is a recess like a chamber about the middle of the cave,
and the bottom of the grotto is rounded off. It is impossible, after an
attentive survey of this place to entertain a doubt of its having been constructed
intentionally for a prison, and a listening place. Rings are cut out of
the angles of the walls, where no doubt the more obnoxious criminals were
fastened. The echo at the mouth of the grotto is very loud; the tearing
of a piece of paper made [P 106] as great a noise as a smart blow of a cudgel
on a board would have done; a gun gave a report like thunder that vibrated
for some seconds, but, farther in, these extraordinary effects ceased. I
have read in a Sicilian author of the last century, that an eminent musician
composed a canon for two voices, which when sung in this cavern appeared
to be performed by four. |
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Document created September 12th 1999 / Revised March 29th 2000
