March, 2020 - POLYSEMi Portal

The Archaeological Park Of Botromagno

On the Botromagno Hill, which is about 400 meters high, it is possible to visit the remains of an ancient Peucetic centre, identified with the ancient Sides or Sidinion. Subsequently, the settlement became a Roman centre, probably Silvium, an important stop on the Appian Way. The area of considerable scientific interest could be one of the poles of archaeological excellence in Puglia, were it not for its state of abandonment and, in part, for the degradation in which the site is located. Paolo Rumiz wrote in 2015:

Una vecchia inchiesta, dal nome cinematografico di Stargate, svela che a Botromagno negli anni novanta sono stati effettuati importanti lavori per rendere accessibile ai visitatori quest’area archeologica unica al mondo. Ma l’intervento si è mangiato quindici miliardi di vecchie lire e non ha portato nulla, se si esclude la scomparsa del malloppo e una lite continua fra la direzione dei lavori e l’impresa esecutrice, che stava tirando in lungo come Penelope con la sua tela. Tutto è finito alle ortiche: il restauro delle tombe, gli itinerari di visita, la cartellonistica, il viale d’accesso, la riqualificazione di un edificio storico con foresteria e reception per i turisti. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

The objects coming from the Botromagno excavations are exhibited in the Ettore Pomarici-Santomasi di Gravina Museum, within the permanent exhibition entitled Aristocrazia e Mito.

The oldest finds on display here are dated between the 7th and the 4th century BC and include fibulae, ornaments in amber, ivory and silver. Particularly interesting are the numerous red-figure vases from the 5th and 4th centuries BC coming from the sepulchral chambers of the alleged necropolis of Botromagno.

Among the numerous ceramic and fictile finds, due to its size and artistic beauty, a volute-shaped crater is attributed to the Painter of Boreas, which represents a scene from the myth of Iphigenia. Also other vases are decorated with scenes related to the Homeric world, confirming the uninterrupted artistic, commercial and political relations of Puglia with the Greek world. The exhibition at the Pomarici Santomasi Foundation only provides a glimpse of the richness of the archaeological heritage of this area of Puglia, which had been robbed over the last few centuries by grave robbers and improvised Indiana-Jones. What was saved from carelessness and thefts is also preserved in the Civic Archaeological Museum of Gravina, in Piazza Benedetto XIII.

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Gravina

Gravina di Puglia

Old photo (CC BY-SA 3.0, https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3694887)

Gravina di Puglia

old photo (CC BY-SA 3.0, https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3694887)

The name of the city in the Alta Murgia already anticipates the peculiarities of its landscape conformation. The whole country stands on a deep grave.

Over the centuries, the natural caves and artificial cavities between these rocky walls have been used as dwellings, stables, shelters, and places of worship. Among the many rock churches, the Basilica of San Michele delle Grotte is definitely worth a visit: it is an environment divided into five naves with wide pillars. The remains of frescoes from the 12th-13th century are still visible. In one of the rooms attached to the church it is possible to visit an ossuary, a macabre deposit of human remains, which according to a tenacious popular tradition is said to contain bones of the citizens of Gravina who had been massacred during one of the Saracen raids in the tenth century.

Inside the little-known and yet rich Pomarici-Santomasi Museum in Gravina visitors can admire the punctual reconstruction of the environments of the crypt of San Vito together with its beautiful medieval frescoes; among them we point out the Christ Pantocrator Enthroned and the Virgin Enthroned. The museum is located in the seventeenth-century building of the Pomarici Santomasi Foundation. Its two floors also house the Pinacoteca, the archaeological finds from the Botromagno area, the Library, the Historical Archive and the reading rooms.

Telephone: +39 080.325.10.21

Fax: +39 080.325.10.21

E-Mail: info@fondazionesantomasi.it

Via Museo n. 20 – 70024 Gravina in Puglia (Ba) – Italy

Opening hours
Tue./Sun.: 9.00-13.00 | 16.00-20.00
Monday closed

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The Basilica Di San Nicola (Basilica Of Saint Nicholas)

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola

(foto di Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61405024)

The Basilica di san Nicola, commissioned by the Benedictine abbot Elias in 1089, was consecrated in 1197. The cultured abbot wanted to erect a building that combined various functions and meanings. It had to be a pilgrimage church, the main church of Bari people and a landmark for those who came from the sea and immediately faced the shape of its soaring towers.

Within the urban fabric, after walking alongside the castle and the cathedral, following today’s Via delle Crociate, and crossing the Arco angioino (the Angevin arch), we get to Piazza di San Nicola.

The basilica, the manifestation of Apulian Romanesque architecture par excellence, stands out in its austere and white tripartite façade, enlivened only by small blind arches in succession until the main portal tympanum and, on the upper register, by the light and dark effect of single-lancet and mullioned windows.

The solid volumes of the building can be clearly perceived thanks to the deep arches running along the side perimeter of the building.

The upper register is lightened on both sides by the elegant succession of six-light windows, which, as stone embroideries, let the light create interesting sculptural effects.

It is a totally homogeneous structure, similar to a fortress, which recalls the big Romanesque cathedrals in the North as for the façade flanked by two imposing towers, but encloses the domes and vaults volumes in rectilinear structures, in line with the Middle East construction techniques and as a tribute to a long Apulian tradition. In order to allow for the flow of pilgrims, who visited in large numbers Saint Nicholas’ relics, along the basilica perimeter there are five decorated portals with sculptures able to combine the beauty of shapes and the rich educational content. In the basilica sculptural decorations, all energy of the Apulian Romanesque style emerges: worlds inhabited by monstra, obtained directly from the Northern bestiaries, coexist with precise classical echoes enriched with clearly Islamic motifs, which are taken from cloth and valuable objects that reached Apulian coasts together with pilgrims and merchants.

In particular, the so-called portal of the lions is worth noting: it opens on the left side of the basilica, just under the first deep side arch. Along the archivolt, the epic of the Normans – the new Lords of Bari – is told through sculpture. With an extraordinarily successful ductus in terms of narration and propaganda, the elegant patterns of the Bayeux Tapestry seem to acquire new life and shapes in these sculptures, arrived in town to tell the stories of the Lords from the North to the new southern subjects.

Bayeux Tapestry, 11^th century, today at the Centre Guillaume-le-Conquérant in Bayeux: a detail

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, portal of the lions, 12^thcentury, a detail

On the contrary, a clearly more Mediterranean style connotes the sculptures of the two column-bearing oxen that ornate the prothyrum of the basilica main portal, made by an anonymous sculptor able to combine local classical tradition motifs with a fully Romance and European style.

The basilica location is not fortuitous but meets precise symbolic and political needs. The new palatine church had to rise where the Katepano Palace was located, in order to indicate that the patron Saint and the Norman Lords who had supported the church construction were about to take the place and role once occupied by the Byzantines; furthermore, the location close to the sea had to highlight the close relationship of the town with the Adriatic Sea. Therefore, the basilica apse area, facing the sea, is like a second façade, with a very large window decorated with carved animals. They are elephants and sphynxes, which, in addition to their symbolic meanings, refer to the East reached and left by pilgrims and merchants boarding in Bari under Saint Nicholas’ protection.

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, sphinx carved in the apse window, a detail.

The church interior has a Latin cross plan with reduced transept wings and is divided into three naves by very big Oriental columns – decorated with carved capitals – that alternate with pillars. The transverse arches were built after the first construction stage instead.

In the chancel area, the travelers may admire the so-called Abbot Elias’ cathedra. The throne, intended for the abbot, is entirely carved out of marble by an artist able to combine the Byzantine elegance in the decorative elements with Romanesque expressionism connoting the telamons that support the throne, whose faces show the effort to bear the load and the burden of sin.

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, interior, Abbot Elias’ cathedra

isultati immagini per cattedra abate elia

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, interior, Abbot Elias’ cathedra, a detail

In this solemn Romanesque setting, the elegant art de cour, imported from Île-de-France by the Angevins, who succeeded to the Normans as leaders of the town, and the oriental purely Byzantine splendor of the crypt, full of sumptuous ornaments and icons, dialogue in an interesting contrast (M. S. Calò Mariani, L’immagine ed il culto di san Nicola a Bari e in Puglia).

The crypt may be accessed through a staircase in the aisle that leads the faithful to a spiritual dimension, thanks to the abundance of icons, lamps, precious metal ornaments, fabrics and embroideries, which contribute to make the view of Saint Nicholas’ relics, here kept, extremely evocative.

Bari, basilica di San Nicola, crypt.

(GNU Free Documentation License)

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, crypt, the column in the grating.

The crypt is not only the site of the sacred, but also a place of narration and legend, where everything contributes to lead the faithful to meditation and the traveler to listening, as the ancient column surrounded by a grating in a corner. Various legends have been passed down about this object over the centuries and have contributed to increase Bari people’s and pilgrims’ devotion to Saint Nicholas. It is said that, after the Council of Nicaea, Nicholas went to Rome to pay tribute to Pope Sylvester. There, in front of a loose woman’s house about to be demolished, he saw a nice column and drove it into the Tiber, through which it miraculously reached Myra port. Back from Rome, he put it in the cathedral of his town. As it had miraculously reached the Anatolian city, it is said to be floating again in Bari’s waters, when the saint’s relics came to town. However, nobody was able to get it. The night before Saint Nicholas’ relics were placed in the new church that was consecrated to him, the inhabitants of Bari heard the bells ringing, rushed to the basilica and saw a holy bishop complete the work, placing a pink column with the help of two angels (A. Beatillo, Historia delle vita, miracoli, traslatione, e gloria dell’Illustrissimo confessore di Christo s.Nicolò il Magno, arcivescovo di Mira, patrone, e protettore della città di Bari).

Since then, that column, which is said to have traveled from the East to the West, exactly as Saint Nicholas’ cult, has become an object of devotion on the part of local people, pilgrims and especially marriageable women.

A lot of artworks coming from the Basilica are now kept in the Museo Nicolaiano in the old town, located at 3 Strada Vanese not far from the church.

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The Cathedral Of Bari

Bari, Cathedral of San Sabino

(Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61448663)

The Cathedral of Bari, dedicated to Saint Sabinus and the Virgin Hodegetria, that is “she who points the way”, seems to hardly emerge from the noisy alleys of the old town, almost hidden in its heart and by the more famous and venerated Basilica di San Nicola. It is the bell tower – the only one that stands out among the low roofs of the village and has remained a distinctive point of reference in the urban skyline for centuries – that makes the church imposing.

Internally and on the tripartite white façade it is possible to read its history, which began in ancient times in the succorpo^[1], adorned with beautiful Early Christian mosaics, and unfolds over the centuries until the Baroque additions, visible in the crypt and the statues, with their emphasized theatricality, that enrich the main portal.

The building took on its current appearance between 1170 and 1178, when it was completely rebuilt, after having been razed to the ground by William I, called the Wicked, following the uprising of Bari people against the new Norman lords.

The façade is divided into three sections by pilaster strips, thus externally reflecting the inner division of the naves. The tops of the slopes have hanging arches that lie on shelves carved with snakes and animals, directly taken from the rich and creative Medieval bestiary.

A large rose window, decorated with statues of monsters, dragons, snakes and grotesque figures, dominates the upper register in line with the main portal. The apse area is not externally visible thanks to a rear façade that has a wonderful large window, considered as one the masterpieces of 12^th-century Romanesque sculpture. This wide scalloped opening, framed by a baldachin supported by hanging columns, is abundantly carved with eastern plant and animal motifs, including in particular a mysterious harpy.

Bari, Cathedral, rear façade, apse window.

Bari, Cathedral, rear façade, a detail of the apse window

The creative sculptural external Romanesque decoration is in contrast with the austere and mystical inner atmosphere, where the silence of the deep naves is enlivened only by the imposing effect created by the arcades, in counterpoint to the elegant three-lancet windows of the upper matronea.

Bari, Cathedral of San Sabino, interior.

(Porcullus Marek Postawka – Opera propria, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3526917)

The oldest core of the church is located five meters below the Cathedral level and dates back to the 6^th century. It is an Early Christian basilica that has maintained its ancient charm nearly intact. The area, formerly divided into three naves, now keeps the foundations of the original columns and a mosaic pavement ornate with geometric motifs and plant and animal elements. It is still possible to read an inscription that mentions a man named Timothy who paid for the floor mosaic decoration to honor a vow.

The crypt hosts the icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, known also as Madonna of Constantinople, an object of deep devotion. Tradition has it that the board came to Bari from Constantinople in the 8^th century, when during iconoclasm the Eastern Roman Emperor had ordered to destroy all the icons. Actually, it is a 16^th-century board that reproduces the Byzantine iconographic type of the Virgin enthroned who points to the Child thus showing the way to heaven, that is Christ.

Over the 18th century, the board was changed, and according to the style and aesthetics of that period, it was protected and covered with a sumptuous silver riza.

Icon of the Virgin Hodegetria

(Sailko – Opera propria, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58901057)

T. N.: The vast hypogeum church underneath the Cathedral. ↑

Itineraries

Itinerary Of Myths And Heroes

Canosa, Ruvo, Bari, Egnazia, Gravina, Altamura, Taranto, Corfù, Lefkada, Itaca

The Itinerary of myths and heroes is a journey that will guide the traveler or reader through the archaeological areas of Puglia, along the Appian Way and its deviationes, between mythological tale and history, following the historical writings of famous authors from the past such as Orazio as well as prestigious contemporary writers like Paolo Rumiz; these travellers have crossed and described this Way. The main stops will be Canosa, Ruvo, Bari, Egnazia, Gravina, Altamura and finally Taranto, one of the most important centres of Magna Graecia, which boasts one of the most beautiful archaeological museums in the world: Marta. Following this itinerary, the traveler will finally be invited to cross the Adriatic to reach the Ionian Islands, which enjoy a unique position in the mythical and epic Western imaginary. The Homeric poems, which are set in this fascinating and fantastic insular world, have over time led people to overlap the literary image of the island of the Phaeacians with the real image of Corfu, and to consider Ithaca as the home of the most famous traveler of all times: Ulysses. Entire generations have been fascinated by a journey that perhaps never took place; although the historical-archaeological evidences are very few and do not allow for a sure identification of the Ionian Islands as the actual theatre of the peregrinations described in the Odyssey, «il turista che, appressandosi per mare alla Grecia, oggi vede da lontano Itaca – as Umberto Eco notes – prova un’emozione omerica». The travellers who are interested in following this itinerary will be invited to go in search of those Homeric emotions by following these islands with the Odyssey in their hands and guided by an educated eighteenth-century writer and traveler, Saverio Scrofani, who has left us intense descriptions of these places, full with mythological and classical suggestions in his book Viaggio in Grecia.

Our itinerary begins in Puglia with the poet Orazio, who in 37 BC at the age of 28, together with Maecenas, Cocceius and Virgil, travelled from Rome to Brindisi. Years later, the memory of that experience became the theme of the fifth satire of the first book from Saturae by the Latin poet. Known as Iter Brundisinum, we advise the traveler to follow the route. Horace and his traveling companions reach Puglia from Benevento and instead of following the main road of ancient Appia, also referred to as regina viarum, choose a way that was still secondary at the time. As time went by, this alternative route became one of the most important routes in the South: the Appian Trajan Way, the route axis built between 108 and 110 AD at the behest of Roman emperor Trajan.

Our first Apulian stop is Canosa which, in Horace’s words, is a city where bread is harder than stone and “che è stata fondata un tempo dal valoroso Diomede”. (“Qui locus a forti Diomede est conditus olim“). The image of the Achaean hero is linked to the birth of many Apulian centres. Legend has it that upon returning from the Trojan War he landed on these shores and founded numerous cities, including Canosa. The relations between Puglia and the Greek civilisation are very ancient, as evidenced by the foundations of numerous settlements linked to the Minoan, Mycenaean and Achaean universe as early as the second millennium BC. This contributed to the dissemination of legendary and mythological stories in various ways linked to the heroes of the Trojan war. Among all, Diomedes is one of the most beloved characters, the protagonist of romantic legends. The hero, who is Ulysses’ companion, after escaping from a conspiracy orchestrated by his wife at the behest of Aphrodite, landed in Daunia and chose this land, which the gods wanted him to call ‘Terra Felice’, to found several cities. The borders were traced with gigantic stones that Diomedes had brought with him from Thrace and threw the three remaining ones into the sea. These became as many islets, i.e. the Diomede Islands, today known as the Tremiti Islands. It is not only the myth and legend of its foundation that testifies to the antiquity of Canosa, but also the numerous archaeological finds that emerged from the subsoil and some of its most beautiful monuments. Just twenty minutes from the centre in the Archaeological Park of San Leucio, the traveller can visit the remains of a Paleo-christian Basilica immersed in a verdant countryside of olive trees and vines, which are built on an already-existing Italic temple from the third century BC; according to scholars, this was dedicated to goddess Minerva. Among tall columns in white marble surmounted by Ionic capitals and Byzantine pulvinos, polychrome mosaic fragments of fine workmanship are still visible. In the ancient temple you can admire the Corinthian capital, which is of rare beauty, with a female protome, the drums of numerous fluted columns and the feet of a gigantic telamon.

After visiting the annexed Antiquarium, we continue our itinerary towards Ruvo di Puglia. Upon arrival, his illustrious travelling companions are “stanchi, come chi ha percorso un lungo tratto e reso più difficile dalla pioggia”.

From an exceptional artistic point of view and despite some nineteenth-century repainting, the vase presents in the foreground the figure of the mortally-wounded giant, who collapsed supported by the Dioscuri. The god of the sea Poseidon and his companion Amphitrite witness the scene, while a female figure, a personification of Crete, flees scared of losing the protection of her guardian.

In Ruvo, the ancient Rubi, an important stopping point along the Appian Trajan Way, ancient history and myth – the two cornerstones of this itinerary – once again meet. The town is an important agricultural centre of the Apulian Murgia and its origins date back to the time of the Peucetians, an ancient Italic population which had already settled in these lands as early as the seventh century BC. It was a Roman municipality and its importance is linked to its strategic position along the route that connected the inland areas of the region with the port cities of the Adriatic coast. Getting here following Horace’s journey, the traveller cannot leave Ruvo without first visiting the Jatta Museum, not only for the rich heritage of Apulian vases that it hosts, but also for the museographic framework in which they are exhibited: the neo-classical Jatta Palace. The Museum is one of the very few examples of a private collection in Italy, formed between 1820 and 1935, which remained intact and set up according to the late nineteenth-century taste. It contains a valuable collection of over 2000 vases found in the Ruvo area thanks to the commitment and the passionate archaeological research carried out by Giovanni Jatta and his family. The Jattas wanted to put an end to the nineteenth-century widespread practice of plundering ancient tombs and burial grounds for commercial and speculative purposes; for this reason, they began to purchase artefacts on the antiques market and to preside over excavation campaigns, thus saving a large part of the historical and archaeological heritage from grave robbers and smugglers. The precious family collection constitutes the Jatta Museum Collection. One of the museum’s most valuable pieces is found in Room 4: it is an Attic crater that probably dates back to the fifth century BC; it represents a scene from the Argonautics by Apollonio Rodio, the Death of Talos. Here the myth reappears. Talos was a giant demon, the keeper of Crete, who was killed by the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, with the help of Medea, in order for Jason to land on the island after conquering the golden fleece.

We leave Ruvo, its myths and its archaeological treasures, to continue our journey along the Appian-Trajan way to reach Bari, briefly defined by Horace as a “fishy” city.

The traveller who arrives today in the Apulian capital is more likely to be captured by the medieval aspect of the city, which instead preserves its archaeological treasures in the recently restored Archaeological Museum of Santa Scolastica, on the Lungomare Imperatore Augusto; this runs under the ancient city wall. Here the remains of ancient Roman columns are still aligned, probably belonging to buildings that have disappeared today. Among these, the traveller will come across one of the milestone columns of the Trajan Way, found in the immediate vicinity. The dedicatory inscription in honour of the emperor Trajan and the indication of the CXXVIII (128) mile distance from Bari and Benevento are still visible on it.

In the heart of the alleys of the historical centre, among which we recommend visiting the Cathedral of San Sabino and the Basilica of San Nicola, the traveller will be able to take a suggestive journey back in time, visiting the exhibitions set up in Palazzo Simi – Operative Centre for Archeology -, in Via Lamberti 1. Inside this Renaissance mansion you can appreciate both vertically and horizontally a dense archaeological stratification that shows the long history of Bari and its pre-existing archaeological features characterising the subsoil through its finds, tools and ceramic artefacts.

From Bari, our itinerary to discover the archaeological heritage and the mythological stories of the Apulian cities and towns leads us near Monopoli, on the Adriatic coast, where there are the remains of an ancient settlement dating back to the Bronze Age: Egnazia.

The Latin poet, after arriving in what had already become a thriving Roman city, quips about local legends and writes:

Egnazia, costruita in ira alle Ninfe, ci offrì motivi di risa e di scherzi, giacché desiderava convincerci che l’incenso sulla soglia del tempio si consuma senza fiamma. Ci creda Apella il giudeo, non io: io infatti ho imparato che gli dei conducono vita tranquilla e, se qualche prodigio la natura produce, non sono gli dei irati a mandarlo giù dall’alto tetto del cielo. (Orazio, Satire, I, V)

Egnazia, the ancient Gnathia of Messapi, still preserves the remains of its ancient walls, which also attracted the attention of another illustrious traveller, like us, in search of the ancient: Baron Von Riedesel, a correspondent of the famous archaeologist Winckelmann from the late eighteenth century, to whom he described the site with the following words,

[…] si veggono, ancora, le sue antiche mura, che si elevano di qualche palmo dal suolo, e son di pietra da taglio, posto a crudo, ossia senza calce e cemento; inoltre, una tomba antica, una conserva di acqua sotterranea, che può aver servito a dei bagni, e che si riconosce essere stata decorata di stucco; ed infine, un altro edificio sotterraneo, di forma quadrata, con un’apertura in ogni angolo, probabilmente, per dargli luce ed aria. Io lo credo, del pari, una conserva d’acqua, essendo necessarii simili edificii in un paese di pianura come questo, nel quale mancano buone sorgenti, e nel quale bisogna ricorrere all’acqua piovana. (H. Von Riedesel, Viaggio attraverso la Sicilia e la Magna Grecia)

Still today the traveler will be able to appreciate the ruins of Egnazia, once an important Roman civitas foederata, then municipium, located along the Trajan Way, within its scenic position in front of the sea. The Roman city experienced its maximum development at the turn of the second and third centuries AD.

The paved route axis of the imperial way is still perfectly legible; to its sides one could find the shops, the forum, the civil basilicas and a vast sanctuary from the Augustan period.

The area has been the subject of numerous study campaigns and archaeological excavations and, since 2016, numerous paths have been opened to the public, allowing tourists to visit the city supported by modern multimedia technologies. The finds from the excavations of Egnazia are now preserved in the nearby Giuseppe Andreassi National Museum.

After this archaeological walk and if the season allows for it, the traveler could take a dip in the clear waters of the Adriatic which sometimes dangerously touch the archaeological area “Invisa alle Ninfe”. Many equipped bathing establishments follow each other along this stretch of coast.

At this point in our itinerary, we leave the poet and his group to proceed towards Brindisi, while we will divert our journey towards the inland areas of the region to reach Taranto, reconnecting to the original route of the Appian Way.

If Horace can be considered as one of the most illustrious travellers of Puglia among the ancient writers, in much more recent times, in 2015, another famous writer and well-known journalist, Paolo Rumiz, ideally picked up the baton. Together with a group of friends, he travelled along the ancient Appian Way from Rome to Brindisi, partly following the course of Horace’s iter brundisinum, unlike the poet, who remained faithful to the oldest route layout. The story of this incredible journey has become a book, entitled Appia, which, by welcoming the wishes of its writer, we have chosen to use as a guide during the last Apulian stages of this journey on the routes of myths and heroes.

The journey that we propose to the traveler is the one that from Gravina leads to Taranto, retracing exactly the route of one of the most important paths of antiquity, one that can aspire to become the Italian Way of Santiago and that Rumiz «come un pifferaio magico» invites us to follow both physically and with our imagination.

The writer arrives in Puglia after crossing Lazio and Campania, from the border with Basilicata, and writes the following:

Dalla Basilicata alla Puglia un lungo andare nel silenzio, fra panorami e infinite e nude distese a seminativo. […] Scampoli di tratturo Tarantino-Appia Antica conducono su e giù verso Gravina, gioiello che prende il nome dal canyon inserito nel Parco nazionale dell’Alta Murgia. Sul lato del burrone opposto a quello dell’attuale città, nel sito di Botromagno, che fu colonizzato dai Peuceti, i Romani avrebbero costruito la stazione di Silvum. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

We advise the traveler to stop in this town, which is built on the slopes of a deep ravine, with unique landscape features, to discover the many crypts, rupestrian churches and its monuments.

We leave the task of describing this evocative place to Paolo Rumiz:

Sull’orlo del precipizio che le dà il nome, Gravina emerge in fondo a una lunga spianata stepposa tipo Arizona. Il contrasto fra la luce calcinata della città e l’ombra smisurata del burrone è impressionante. […] Ma quello che fa la vera differenza è che Gravina è una città in negativo: scavata nella pancia del tufo più che costruita attraverso muri maestri. […]

Il solido tufo di Gravina fa sì che il segno dell’Appia si perda in un labirinto di tracce di carriaggi e antichi marciapiedi. […]

Sulle mappe antiche il nome attuale della città non esiste. Al suo posto, nell’itinerario dell’Appia è segnata Sylvium. Ma Gravina, secondo alcuni, non ha nulla a che fare con questa. E allora Sylvium dov’è? (P. Rumiz, Appia)

To answer this question, our journalist and traveler interpellates the archeology experts who reveal that today’s town is very likely to be the neighbour of Sylvium, heir to a Greek centre called Sidinon, a term that derives from the Greek word «Side» which means pomegranate. On some coins, which were found in the hill west to the deep ravine that cuts the town in two, this toponym can be read. In this case, it is better to head towards this hill called Botromagno with Rumiz. Although the archaeological area has remained fortunately intact, as the medieval and modern town of Gravina has developed on the opposite side of the ravine, the site is difficult to reach and visit.

“Gravina – as Rumiz states – è una città verticale, un condominio rupestre con le case dei ricchi in alto e quelle dei poveri in basso. Ma ecco che proprio questa città termitaio ha la particolarità unica di avere le sue stratificazioni storiche in orizzontale. Una di fronte all’altra, anziché una sopra l’altra, come normalmente succede”. He then goes on:

Botromagno, oltre la gola, sembra impersonare il “doppio” sepolcrale della città dei vivi. “Botros” per i Greci era nient’altro che il canyon, per cui il toponimo – per dirla con il Signore degli Anelli – può essere efficacemente tradotto con “Gran Burrone”. Ma “burrone” è esattamente come dire “gravina”, parola antichissima derivante dall’accadico “Grab” – fossa, tomba –, tuttora usata nel tedesco, ma con in più una connotazione sacra legata alle acque. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

The traveller visiting Gravina cannot help but notice that the surrounding area is characterised by a vaguely sepulchral aura, conferred by the numerous caves used as necropolis and the ancient burial grounds along the sides of the ravine. Moreover, if he is lucky, he may come across some villager ready to tell him the stories and legends that populate these rocks. Paolo Rumiz met Pino who told him how the village elders believed that ancient demons still lived in that place. Rumiz writes:

Quando passo lì accanto la sera, sento voci, vedo fiaccole alle finestre, dice Pino, ricordando che Gravina è luogo di abitazione e di culto da tempo immemorabile. Mio nonno disse che una notte aveva udito urla umane e un rombo di carri e cavalli al galoppo. Era corso dal parroco a raccontare la visione e quello gli aveva dato alcune effigi benedette per proteggersi dai demoni. Ebbene pochi giorni dopo, proprio in quel luogo, furono trovate due tombe greche, e nessuno tolse dalla testa al nonno l’idea che le grida fossero uscite da quella finestra sull’Ade. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

We leave Gravina, its caves and its stories, to continue our itinerary along the Appian Way on the steps of Rumiz who, after crossing the Murgia, passes through Altamura, according to some scholars the ancient city of Blera, the next stop within our journey. The journalist describes his difficulties walking this stretch of road:

Se c’è un luogo dove sul tracciato dell’Appia non ci sono dubbi, ce lo abbiamo davanti. Lo dicono gli itinerari romani, la Tabula Peutigeriana, le carte IGM del secondo dopoguerra. […] Scavalchiamo le recinzioni, rimontiamo i terrapieni e camminiamo contromano tra i guardrail come lagunari, sfiorati da automobilisti allibiti. […] Ecco dove l’archeologia diventa intralcio per l’italico potere cementizio. Per questo, anche in Apulia, l’Appia è apertamente ignorata dai sindaci e dai loro tirapiedi. Più comodo far finta che non ci sia. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

The traveller, who is following this itinerary on foot, by train or by other means, once arrived in Altamura will be fascinated by this centre populated since prehistoric times. Just in the countryside of this rich agricultural town the first and only intact and complete prehistoric hominid skeleton was discovered and is known as the Man of Altamura.

We recommend a visit to the historical centre of the town with its majestic Cathedral and finally a walk through the narrow streets and its cloisters, which Rumiz describes as follows:

Altamura vecchia è acustica del labirinto allo stato puro. Trillo biforcuto di rondoni, solitario canto greco di donna, fruscio di panni stesi. Luce violenta, che ti spinge a parlare sottovoce anziché a gridare più forte. Passeri che tacciono, aspettando la sera. Enormi nubi immobili nonostante il vento. […] Il genius loci aborre il rombo dei rettilinei e si rintana nei “claustri”, piazzette nascoste, dove regna un borbottio claustrale, da accademia talmudica. Diverticoli che ripetono il motivo del grembo femminile. Altamura è una “polis” in miniatura, che si rintana in mille viottoli. Non guarda all’esterno, ma verso il proprio centro. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

From the labyrinthine Altamura, with its cloisters, small courtyards in which votive shrines are often still set up, and which suddenly open up between the narrow alleys, we continue our journey towards Taranto.

Our journey following the one of the writer, which has become our guide on the Via Appia, continues through the lands between Puglia and Basilicata. After crossing the municipalities of Laterza and Castellaneta, we eventually begin to see the Ionian Sea and unfortunately also Ilva, the huge iron and steel plant that stands at the gates of Taranto.

This is the story of Paolo Rumiz’s arrival in the city:

[…] oltre una distesa di agrumeti, al termine di un lungo piano inclinato, appare la striscia cobalto dello Jonio, il più greco dei mari. E, poco a sinistra, sotto una massa di nubi portatrici di pioggia, un’altra visione. Inquietante. Una cresta dentata che fuma, come quella di uno stegosauro, trapassata dai fulmini, immensa eppur lontanissima. L’Ilva.

Ci aspetta sornione, a fauci spalancate, in fondo alla nostra strada. Si è disteso apposta sul cammino dell’Appia Antica col corpo smisurato e la pancia abitata dal fuoco perenne. Tra noi e Taranto è l’ultimo ostacolo. Un passaggio obbligato, come la Sfinge dei Greci, come il Maligno appostato sui ponti delle fiabe. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

Even the traveller who is following this route, before being able to appreciate the beauties of the Ionian capital, will have to overcome the “Sphinx”, pass the blanket of smoke that surrounds the city, which was once the terminus of the Appian Way, before Brindisi became the terminal. In all likelihood he will have to circumvent the abandoned reddish buildings of the Tamburi district, where workers of the iron and steel factory were staying and which, as a mirage of development and well-being, soon turned out to be a very dangerous nightmare for the population and the environment. However, Taranto is not only Ilva. With its scenic location on a natural inlet of still crystal clear waters, the city will astonish the traveller, as Rumiz explains:

Ma ecco Taranto Vecchia, aggrappata all’isolotto che fa da intercapedine tra il Mar Grande e il Mar Piccolo. Reti colorate alla greca, odore di pescheria di una volta, vicoli più autentici che a Sorrento, popolane sfrontate, case che il tempo ha lasciato invecchiare in pace. […] Sul lato della città nuova, due poderose colonne doriche, di gran lunga anteriori alla tracciatura dell’Appia, snobbano il presente voltando le spalle all’acciaieria e dicono che la storia di Taranto che conta è tutta anteriore al dominio romano. Taranto significa una grande epopea ignorata. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

This Tarantine epopeia, according to legend and myth, began around 2000 BC., when Taras, Poseidon’s son, would have arrived in the city on the back of a dolphin. According to Strabo, a Greek geographer and historian who lived at the end of the 1st century BC, it was a group of Spartans led by Falanto who founded Taranto in 708 BC.

In the last decades of the fourth century, the city was one of the most powerful and prosperous colonies in Magna Graecia, as evidenced by the exports of vases and ceramics throughout the Mediterranean and the numerous capitals that were mobilised to erect incredible works of art and refined products of goldsmith’s art, today exposed in the Marta Museum, one of the Italian and European museum excellences.

Let us enter its halls following the story narrated by Rumiz:

[…] è vietato andarsene da Taranto senza aver visto il museo archeologico. All’ex-convento dei frati alcantarini si deve andare semplicemente perché ce lo ordina la bellezza, e la bellezza se ne frega se Roma è distratta e lontana, se a Taranto non arriva nessun Frecciarossa e non c’è aeroporto. […]

In quelle sale venerabili abita una delle meraviglie d’Europa. Un’antichità che non è marmo freddo ma scintillio di ori e argenti, gioielleria greca sepolta e riemersa dalle necropoli del IV e III secolo avanti Cristo. Taranto delle grandi botteghe degli orafi, Taranto trionfo di un universo femminile che Roma è ancora lontana dal concepire. Taranto dagli orecchini a navicella tintinnanti di pendagli, dalle foglie d’alloro e dai petali rosa in lamina d’oro zecchino. Taranto degli anelli, dei monili, delle teste di leone, fucina di smalti favolosi, cristalli di rocca, granulati d’oro, anelli, cammei e raffinati sigilli. (P. Rumiz, Appia)

After admiring the splendours of Taranto’s past guarded at Marta, the traveller is now left to continue his journey along the Appian Way to reach Brindisi; with its port the city of Brindisi is still today, as in the past, one of the embarkation points par excellence towards the East and Greece. On one of the ferries which connect the city of Alto Salento to Greece, we leave Puglia to land in the Ionian Islands. The crossing will last only one night and at dawn the traveller will be able to see from afar the island that has always been identified as Scheria (Phaeacia): Corfu. It took eighteen days for Ulysses to reach it, after leaving beautiful Calypso in Ogygia.

With the Odyssey in hand, in its poetic translation by Ippolito Pindemonte, a scholar and poet with solid classicist foundations yet close to the pre-romantic sensibility who lived at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Ulysses’ arrival in Corfu will introduce us to the Homeric dimension of this last part of our itinerary.

Lieto l’eroe dell’innocente vento,

La vela dispiegò. Quindi al timone

Sedendo, il corso dirigea con arte,

Né gli cadea su le palpèbre il sonno

Mentre attento le Pleiadi mirava,

E il tardo a tramontar Boòte e l’Orsa

Che detta è pure il Carro, e là si gira,

Guardando sempre in Orïone, e sola

Nel liquido Oceàn sdegna lavarsi

L’Orsa, che Ulisse, navigando, a manca

Lasciar dovea, come la diva ingiunse.

Dieci pellegrinava e sette giorni

Su i campi d’Anfitrite. Il dì novello

Gli sorse incontro co’ suoi monti ombrosi

L’isola de’ Feaci, a cui la strada

Conducealo più corta, e che apparìa

Quasi uno scudo alle fosche onde sopra.

(Odyssey, V, 346-361.)

(R. Nicolì, Introduction to Viaggio in Grecia by Saverio Scrofani, POLYSEMI Digital Library)

As he wrote:

Finalmente, dopo otto giorni di navigazione, ecco le Montagne dell’Epiro, ecco gli scogli Acrocerauni, ecco Corfù. A questi nomi mille idee mi si affollarono in mente: Alessandro, Pirro, Nausica, Alcinoo, Ulisse occuparono ad un tratto la mia fantasia: io non mi stancava di riguardare da lontano quelle rocche e quei monti così famosi. (S. Scrofani, Viaggio in Grecia, Letter V)

In these verses we can follow Odysseus who is happy at the helm of his raft oriented through the stars, as advised by beautiful Calypso, always keeping the Chariot to the left, the only star that never changes position. On the eighteenth day, the shady mountains of the Phaeacian island appear.

The arrival on the Greek coasts has always aroused an incredible emotion in the writers of every age, who above all between Enlightenment and Romanticism chose Greece as the ideal home of Western culture. Let us read for example the emotion of the Sicilian prolific intellectual Saverio Scrofani as he saw the Ionian Islands on the horizon during his 1794 journey undertaken in the wake of the Enlightenment Grand Tour, with a look at ancient Greece that «anticipa l’adesione lirica che il mito dell’Ellade conoscerà nei grandi romantici europei». (R. Nicolì, Introduction to Viaggio in Grecia di Saverio Scrofani, POLYSEMI Digital Library). As he wrote:

Still today when coming to Corfu by ship the traveller can observe the looming of the Albanian mountains on the horizon – which excited Scrofani and which we like to imagine as the same shady mountains that Ulysses saw – and, entering the port, the gaze will be captured by the bulk of the Old Venetian Fort with its ramparts on the sea.

As he landed on these shores, Ulysses met beautiful Nausicaa who took him to the city in the palace of his father Alcinous, king of the island. There are many places here that compete for the primacy of having been the theatre of this first meeting; among them are Paleocastrizza on the west coast, about thirty kilometres far from the city of Corfu and, on the east coast, the bay of Kanoni.

Once landed in Corfu, the traveller can only start wandering around Kerkyra, the main centre of the island, in an attempt to recognise the city of the Phaecians.

As described in the Odyssey:

È la città da un alto

Muro cerchiata, e due bei porti vanta

D’angusta foce, un quinci e l’altro quindi,

Su le cui rive tutti in lunga fila

Posan dal mare i naviganti legni.

Tra un porto e l’altro si distende il foro

Di pietre quadre, e da vicina cava

Condotte, lastricato; e al fôro in mezzo

L’antico tempio di Nettun si leva.

(Odyssey, VI, 366-373)

Nothing remains of the high walls sung in these verses or of the paved hole and even less of the temple of Neptune neither in Kerkyra nor in the other towns of the island – to the point that the cultured Sicilian traveller Scrofani struggled to hide the disappointment and wrote:

[…] dove son dunque i resti della reggia e de’ giardini d’Alcinoo? Non si vede più nulla. Il tempo distrugge, è vero, le fabbriche e le coltivazioni; ma le fonti, ma i fiumi che le irrigavano dove sono? Temo che tutte le bellezze e le magnificenze d’Alcinoo, le porte d’oro, le mura d’argento, i chiodi di gemme, non siano un effetto della fantasia d’Omero come le statue ch’ei fa lavorare per lo scudo d’Achille. Se si vuole prestar fede al racconto del poeta, qui presso era il luogo dove Ulisse fu rigettato dalla tempesta; qui ha dovuto nascondersi e qui mostrarsi nudo alla figlia del re. Ecco la fonte dove Nausica lavava i panni quando il re d’Itaca le si scoperse, quando ella se ne innamorò, quando le sue ancelle lo rivestirono dopo aver in un segreto abboccamento ottenuta la protezione della padrona. Ma come è possibile che Ulisse, giunto in Feacia, non sapesse riconoscere le montagne dell’Epiro che le stanno in faccia, né la stessa Leucade che doveva quasi scoprire co’ propri occhi? Di più: Ulisse, un re, un viaggiatore, un eroe che ritorna dopo aver distrutto il regno di Priamo, ignora poi qual popolo abiti in quell’Isola e quali sieno i Feacesi? Eppure Corfù non è distante che 100 miglia da Itaca. Misero colui, che ardisse oggigiorno scrivere un poema su questo gusto. Che dico? Felice chi potesse solamente imitarlo. (S. Scrofani, Viaggio in Grecia, Lettera X)

Never mind if the traveler arrived in Corfu will not see the traces of Alcinoo’s palace as happened in Scrofani,: the island and the city will still be able to enchant him with their Venetian and Oriental charm, their incredible landscape and beautiful beaches.

There is another place closely related to the Homeric tale: the islet of Pontikonissi, a few kilometres south to the centre of Kerkyra. According to a tenacious tradition it would be the ship by which the Phaeacians brought Ulysses back to Ithaca. It is said that Poseidon petrified and sank the boat here out of revenge, when they came back home.

The verses of book XIII from the Odyssey describe the moment in which the God of the Sea, after talking to Zeus, operates the prodigy and, after approaching the ship and with a touch of hand, turned it into stone – into what the legend wants it to be today precisely known as the rock of Pontikonissi:

“[…] quando

I Feacesi scorgeran dal lido

Venir la nave a tutto corso, e poco

Sarà lontana, convertirla in sasso

Che di naviglio abbia sembianza, e oggetto

Si mostri a ognun di maraviglia; e in oltre

Grande alla lor città montagna imporre”.

Lo Scuotiterra, udito questo appena,

Si portò a Scheria in fretta, e qui fermossi.

Ed ecco spinta dagl’illustri remi

Su per l’onde venir l’agile nave.

Egli appressolla, e convertilla in sasso,

E d’un sol tocco della man divina

La radicò nel fondo. Indi scomparve.

(Odyssey, XIII, 188-201)

The traveller will decide whether to believe this legend or not; however, it is an absolutely advisable experience to visit this high cliff on the sea, surrounded by a cypress grove, reachable by boat from the pier where the white Monastery of Vlacherna of the seventeenth century is located.

Before leaving Corfu and continuing the itinerary towards the island of Lefkada and finally towards ‘rocky’ Itaca, we advise the traveller to visit the Villa Mon Repos which hosts an interesting archaeological collection with finds from the ancient area of Paleopolis and the Archaeological Museum located in via Vraila Armeni n.1. Here, among other interesting finds, the pediment of an archaic temple dedicated to goddess Artemis is preserved and exposed, bearing the impressive mythological figure of one of the Gorgons, according to the British poet and writer Lawrence Durrell, the famous Medusa.

Here in Corfu is the story of another terrifying woman of classical mythology, Medea, who got married on the island, with Jason, the traveling hero wandering all over the Mediterranean in search of the golden fleece together with the Argonauts. According to mythology it was Alcinous himself, the king of the Phaecians, who welcomed Medea and Jason to the island and made them marry. The wedding was followed by an intense night of love. It is precisely during that night that Medea, the famous film by Pasolini starring Maria Callas, begins.

Now what the traveller is left to do is to follow Ulysses’ example and continue the journey. Although the beauties of Corfu invite you to stay, the time has come to set sail and continue our itinerary of myths and heroes towards Lefkada, taking advantage of the connections by sea that are made available for the Ionian Islands. Along our route we will come across the two small islets of Paxos and Antipaxos. You do not need to touch the ground to encounter myths and history again. Not too far from the waters we are sailing, one of the most famous battles of the ancient world was fought, i.e. the battle of Actium, where the dreams of love and power between Antonio and Cleopatra broke. Legend has it that the two lovers feasted on these islets on the eve of the fatal battle. This stretch of Ionian sea is also a jewel of biodiversity, where it is possible to admire some rare marine species such as the hawksbill turtle and the monk seal.

We arrive in Lefkada, which is called Santa Maura by Venetians. Today the island is famous for its pristine beaches and for being a favourite destination for walkers and hikers.

In addition to its natural beauty, in the Classical and Romantic imagination Lefkada is famous for its white cliffs immortalised by painters and sung by many poets; it is from these cliffs that the poet Sappho decided to throw herself into the sea to end her tormented love with Phaon.

Saverio Scrofani is clearly excited as he writes the report of his 1794 trip to Greece in the form of an epistolary report which was published in 1799:

Al far del giorno ci trovammo in faccia a’ famosi regni d’Ulisse: questa è Leucade, quella è Itaca, quella è Ceffalonia, quello è il Zante. Ecco il capo Colonna e le ruine del tremendo tempio d’Apollo. […] dall’alto di quello scoglio che sto osservando co’ propri occhi, che biancheggia da lontano e spaventa, in quel mare profondo che si frange a’ suoi piedi, funesto sempre a’ nocchieri e sempre agitato, si precipitò e perì ebria d’amore, di dispetto, di noia la divina, la sensibile, l’appassionata Saffo. E i Sacerdoti, gl’interpreti, i ministri de’ numi avevano inventato quest’assassinio? E i numi che amavano l’umanità e l’innocenza, i numi che punivano le altrui sceleraggini lasciarono sussistere per più secoli quest’esempio della lor tirannia e della loro impotenza? O come ti vedrei volentieri, Faone, in mezzo a Tizio ed a Sisifo pagar la pena della tua durezza: ti vedrei rodere… Ma questo rimprovero è sicuramente un’ingiustizia, un effetto della mia fantasia riscaldata. Qual colpa ebbero Faone, i preti, i numi? L’uno non poté amar Saffo, e quando non si può non v’ha colpa; gli altri la tolsero dagli affanni che soffriva amando chi non l’amava: in effetto la morte è il solo efficace rimedio per un amore non corrisposto. Alle porte d’ogni città, si dovrebbe trovare un salto di Leucade: gli amanti disperati ritornerebbero saggi o finirebbero di penare, e i governi sarebbero più tranquilli. (S. Scrofani, Viaggio in Grecia, Lettera XI)

It is said that the ancients believed that one could directly reach the underworld or at least the river Acheron by jumping from these cliffs. In fact, according to Strabo, it seems that the dive from the Lefkada cliff was a fairly common practice in classical antiquity and that Apollo’s priests performed it regularly. The jump, which probably also had some propitiatory function, was called Katapontismos.

We leave his romantic cliffs of Saffo to reach the longed-for destination of Ulysses’ journey and the last part of our journey.

In verses 26-33 of Canto IX of the Odyssey, Ithaca is briefly described as follows: its landscape is dominated by the high Monte Nerito, on which the winds break; it is surrounded by the neighbouring islands most moved to the East, like luxuriant Zakynthos. The earth is harsh and mountainous, yet good nurturer of young people:

[…] dove

Lo scotifronde Nérito si leva

Superbo in vista, ed a cui giaccion molte

Non lontane tra loro isole intorno,

Dulichio, Same, e la di selve bruna

Zacinto. All’orto e al mezzogiorno queste,

Itaca al polo si rivolge, e meno

Dal continente fugge: aspra di scogli,

Ma di gagliarda gioventù nutrice.

(Odyssey, IX, 26-33)

What is left to do is to suggest the traveller who wants to experience the Homeric dimension of the island some excursions in the surrounding area. Moving about 10 km south of Vathy, the main centre of Ithaca, near the village of Anemothouri, one can encounter the true or alleged Arethusa source, that is, where Ulysses in the Odyssey is said to have met his trusted servant Eumaeus, who used to go there to let the pigs water.

The path, albeit not always easy, offers panoramas and very suggestive views. A simple blue sign indicates the site where the source is located.

Another place we suggest to visit is the natural ravine, near the famous beach of Dexa, known as the grotto of the Nymphs, “the convex cavern”, where the hero made sacrifices in honour of the divine creatures. Here you can also improvise new Indiana Jones in search of the treasures that Ulysses is said to have hidden near the cave. By reading the verses of the Odyssey that sing this place, the traveller will be able to recognise the landscape, which is characterised by the fronds of the olive trees that still today embellish this stretch of the Iacese coast sacred to the nymphs called Naiaids; between amphorae and vases where the bees produce honey, they weave purple drapes of incredible beauty on marble looms.

As Homer sang:

[…] Spande sovra la cima i larghi rami

Vivace oliva, e presso a questa un antro

S’apre amabile, opaco, ed alle ninfe

Nàiadi sacro. Anfore ed urne, in cui

Forman le industri pecchie il mel soave,

Vi son di marmo tutte, e pur di marmo

Lunghi telai, dove purpurei drappi,

Maraviglia a veder, tesson le ninfe.

(Odyssey, XIII, 126-132)

Finally, we head to Mount Aetos, near the small village of Alalkomenés. On this summit, the famous archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann was able to find the city of Troia with the Iliad in his hands; he also managed to find the remains of Ulysses’ palace. There are still no archaeological evidences to confirm this hypothesis, but based on recent excavations, another place in Ithaca has become a candidate for the site where the Greek hero’s palace would be.

Near the small village of Stavròs, on the small hill of Pelikata, in the northern part of the island, among hills covered with olive trees and planted with vines, near a small archaeological museum, the remains of a palace with Cyclopean age walls have been identified dating back to the Mycenaean era; we like to imagine that long ago it was able to certainly host some noble warrior or aristocrat, if not Ulysses and faithful Penelope.

Qui dunque visse, quell’uomo eloquente, e in conseguenza artificioso, che dopo aver fatto il pirata fra questi scogli infecondi, fu poi cagione in Asia della strage e del pianto di migliaia d’uomini e di cui Omero ha fatto un eroe? Qui i Proci assediavano Penelope, qui visse Telemaco, qui Mentore filosofava, qui scese Minerva a proteggere Ulisse, a conversare con lui? (S. Scrofani, Viaggio in Grecia, Letter XI)

Let us conclude at the end of this itinerary, as Scrofani suggests, that “I geografi, egl’istorici ne disbrighino la questions far loro”, since, after paraphrasing some verses of the Greek poet Kostandinos Kavafis, we are certain that even without having the answers to our Homeric doubts:

[…] non per questo Itaca ti avrà deluso

Fatto ormai savio, con tutta la tua esperienza addosso

già tu avrai capito ciò che Itaca vuole significare.

(K. Kavafis, Itaca)

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Le Isole Ionie Secondo Lawrence Durrell – SPA

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Le Isole Ionie Secondo Lawrence Durrell – GER

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Villa Mon Repos

Villa Mon Repos

foto di Marc Ryckaert (MJJR) – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20310622

La bella tenuta Mon Repos si trova sulla penisola di Kanòni, nel luogo in cui anticamente sorgeva il centro più importante dell’isola: Paleópolis. La villa in stile neo-classico è stata, in passato, la residenza dei governatori britannici: qui nacque il principe Filippo di Grecia, consorte della regina Elisabetta II d’Inghilterra. Oggi al suo interno si può visitare il museo che illustra la storia della residenza e degli scavi archeologici dell’area, che hanno restituito interessanti reperti provenienti dalle antiche terme che i Romani avevano edificato in questo sito.

Nel rigoglioso e vasto parco alberato che circonda la Villa si trovano le rovine di antichi santuari greci dedicati alla dea Era e ad Apollo e, in cima ad una scarpata, difronte al mare, si può ammirare un tempietto dorico ancora ben conservato.

Penisola di Kanòni, Dairpfela 16, Corfù

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La Chiesa Di San Spiridione

LA CHIESA DI SAN SPIRIDIONE

La chiesa di San Spiridione, patrono dell’isola, si trova nel cuore della città vecchia di Corfù, perfettamente riconoscibile nello skyline cittadino per la sua alta torre, terminate in una cupoletta rossa, ispirata alla chiesa di San Giorgio a Venezia.

Fu costruita nel 1590, dopo che l’antico edificio di culto era stato demolito per ingrandire le mura di cinta della città.

L’esterno è estremamente sobrio, una semplice facciata con terminazione rettilinea, movimentata unicamente dall’apertura di finestre e di un portale.

All’interno presenta un impianto basilicale a una sola navata e un elaborato soffitto a cassettoni incorniciati in oro che racchiudono pitture raffiguranti scene di vita del Santo.

Sui fianchi laterali della chiesa si aprono due differenti ingressi per consentire l’afflusso dei pellegrini che giungono numerosi, in diverse occasioni liturgiche dell’anno, per visitare le reliquie di San Spiridione.

Questi, secondo la leggenda agiografica, era un pastore cipriota vissuto nel IV secolo, che dedicò la sua vita alla chiesa e compì numerosi miracoli.

Le sue spoglie, che si dice profumino di basilico, furono portate prima a Costantinopoli, quando Cipro fu invasa dai Saraceni e, nel 1453, a Corfù, dove si trovano ancora oggi, conservate in una ricca teca d’argento che viene portata in processione più volte l’anno: a dicembre, in occasione della festa patronale, durante la settimana santa e ad agosto, quando si celebra il salvataggio di Corfù del 1716 da un attacco dei Turchi, avvenuto, per i fedeli, grazie all’intercessione del Santo. Numerosi gli ex-voto presenti all’interno della chiesa, principalmente lampade in argento sbalzato.

Corfù, centro storico, campanile della chiesa di San Spiridione (foto di Jean-Luc 2005 – Own workOriginal text: selbst fotografiert, Copyrighted free use, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64277686)

Corfù, chiesa di San Spiridione, interno, particolare del soffitto. (By Piotrus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12243367)

Itinerary-07-Durrell-link-04

Eos, La Dea Dell’aurora

Nella mitologia classica Eos, ovvero la dea dalle dita rosate, era la dea dell’Aurora. Il suo arrivo da Est, a bordo di una biga dorata, precede il carro di Apollo e il giorno. Soggetto molto popolare nell’arte e nella letteratura è rappresenta come una bella fanciulla elegantemente vestita. La sua avvenenza e i suoi amori destarono l’antipatia di Afrodite che la punì condannandola ad amori infelici. Ovidio narra che la rugiada mattutina altro non sia che le lacrime della triste Eos per la morte di uno dei figli, vittima dell’ira di Achille, durante la guerra di Troia.

Guercino, L’Aurora, Roma, Casino Ludovisi.

Di Guercino – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Pubblico dominio, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152454