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Palazzolo Acreide
Palazzolo Acreide ( Sicilian: ''Palazzolu'', in the local dialect: ''Palazzuolu'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily ( southern Italy). It is from the city of Syracuse in the Hyblean Mountains. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). History The area around Palazzolo Acreide has been inhabited since ancient times. In the 10th-11th centuries BC, the Sicels lived here in small villages. The town occupies the site of the ancient Akrai (Latin ''Acrae''), founded by Syracuse around 664 BC. The city was important as it controlled the paths of communication between the towns on the southern coast of the island. According to Thucydides, the Syracusans defeated the Athenians here in 413 BC. In the treaty between the Romans and Hiero II of Syracuse in 263 BC it was assigned to the latter. After the Roman conquest, it became a ''civitas stipendiaria'', and was still prospering in the course o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4.7 million inhabitants, including 1.2 million in and around the capital city of Palermo, it is both the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean Sea. Sicily is named after the Sicels, who inhabited the eastern part of the island during the Iron Age. Sicily has a rich and unique culture in #Art and architecture, arts, Music of Sicily, music, #Literature, literature, Sicilian cuisine, cuisine, and Sicilian Baroque, architecture. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, and one of the most active in the world, currently high. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate. It is separated from Calabria by the Strait of Messina. It is one of the five Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (50927 BC), and the Roman Empire (27 BC476 AD) until the fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic peoples, Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually controlled the Italian Peninsula, assimilating the Greece, Greek culture of southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and the Etruscans, Etruscan culture, and then became the dominant power in the Mediterranean region and parts of Europe. At its hei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romanesque Architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Romanesque is characterized by semicircular arches, while the Gothic is marked by the pointed arches. The Romanesque emerged nearly simultaneously in multiple countries of Western Europe; its examples can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture. Similarly to Gothic, the name of the style was transferred onto the contemporary Romanesque art. Combining features of ancient Roman and Byzantine buildings and other local traditions, Romanesque architecture is known by its massive quality, thick walls, round arches, sturdy pillars, barrel vaults, large towers and decorative arcading. Each building has clearly defined forms, frequently of very regular, symmetrical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesco Laurana
Francesco Laurana, also known as Francesco de la Vrana (; c. 1430 – before 12 March 1502) was a Dalmatian sculptor and medallist. He is considered both a Croatian and an Italian sculptor. Though born in the territory of the Republic of Venice, he spent his mature career at the other end of Italy, moving between Naples and Sicily, and Urbino, and finally in southern France, where he died. He was one of the more significant and complex sculptors of the 15th century – complex because of his activities within varying cultural circles and his exposure to differing influences. His best works evolved in the workshop tradition in collaboration with other artists. His portrait busts reveal a creative individuality that was seen as particularly fascinating in the late 19th century. Though it is impossible to chart his stylistic development, his later work made in France shows some assimilation of northern realism, which is absent from the work executed in Italy. Life and works La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrara
Carrara ( ; ; , ) is a town and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey Carrara marble, marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, west-northwest of Florence. Its motto is Latin: '' "" ("My strength is in the wheel"), a reference firstly to the marble shipping industry from Roman times onwards. Toponymy The word ''Carrara'' likely comes from the pre-Roman (Celtic languages, Celtic or Ligurian language (ancient), Ligurian) element ''kar'' (stone), through Latin ''carrariae'' meaning 'quarries'. History There were known settlements in the area as early as the ninth century BC, when the Apuan Ligures lived in the region. The current town originated from the borough built to house workers in the marble quarries created by the ancient Rome, Romans after their conquest of Liguria in the early second century BC. Carrara has been linked with the process of quarrying and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicilian Baroque
Sicilian Baroque is the distinctive form of Baroque architecture which evolved on the island of Sicily, off the southern coast of Italy, in the , when it was part of the Spanish Empire. The style is recognisable not only by its typical Baroque curves and flourishes, but also by distinctive grinning masks and putto, putti and a particular flamboyance that has given Sicily a unique architectural identity. The Sicilian Baroque style came to fruition during a major surge of rebuilding following the massive 1693 Sicily earthquake, earthquake in 1693. Previously, the Baroque style had been used on the island in a naïve and parochialism, parochial manner, having evolved from Cross-genre, hybrid native architecture rather than being derived from the great Baroque architects of Rome. After the earthquake, local architects, many of them trained in Rome, were given plentiful opportunities to recreate the more sophisticated Baroque architecture that had become popular in mainland Italy; the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Paolo, Palazzolo Acreide
San Paolo is a Roman Catholic basilica church located in the town of Palazzolo Acreide, in the region of Sicily, Italy. History and description A small church dedicated to Santa Sofia, mother of Pope Gregory I (Saint Gregory the Great) was located on this site, but had been razed to erect a larger basilica church. This one in turn was razed by the 1693 Sicily earthquake, and a new Baroque church was erected between 1720 and 1730. The facade, rich in detail, was designed by Vincenzo Sinatra Vincenzo Sinatra (1707 – 1765) was a Sicily, Sicilian architect. He was a pupil of Rosario Gagliardi. Sinatra worked in both the Baroque style and later in Neo-Classical style. Following the 1693 Sicily earthquake, 1693 earthquake, the ci .... It has projecting corinthian columns, and atop these, in the third story, are statues of twelve apostles. The central arch above the portal has a statue of Christ blessing flanked by two cherubim. The facade harbors a portico or pronaos, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in the cities. While humans started gathering grains at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers only began planting them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated around 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. In the 20th century, industrial agriculture based on large-scale monocultures came to dominate agricultural output. , small farms produce about one-third of the world's food, but large farms are prevalent. The largest 1% of farms in the world are greater than and operate more than 70% of the world's farmland. Nearly 40% of agricultural land is found on farms larger than . However, five of every six farm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buscemi
Buscemi (; or ) is an Italian town and (municipality) of 968 inhabitants of the free municipal consortium of Syracuse, in Sicily. Etymology The name is from the Arabic (), a phrase reported in 1154 by the Hammudite geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi.Al-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq Geography Buscemi is located 50 kilometers west of Syracuse, 45 north of Ragusa and 70 south of Catania. The town is located on the southern slope of Monte Vignitti (788 m a.s.l.), located in the central part of the Iblei Mountains, between the relief of Contessa district and the Anapo river and is surrounded by the historic sites of ancient Akrai, Casmene and the Necropolis of Pantalica. The closest municipalities to reach are Buccheri and Palazzolo Acreide which are both less than ten kilometers away. It is the thirteenth municipality of the province by extension of the territory with 51 km2, although the inhabited center extends only for just over 1 km2. Furthe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odeon (building)
Odeon or Odeum (, , lit. "singing place") is the name for several ancient Ancient Greece, Greek and Ancient Rome, Roman buildings built for musical activities such as singing, musical shows, and poetry competitions. Odeons were smaller than List of ancient Greek theatres, Greek and Roman theatre (structure), Roman theatres. Etymology The ancient Greek word comes from the verb (, "I sing") which is also the root of (, "ode") and of (, "singer"). Description In a general way, the construction of an odeon was similar to that of an ancient Greek theatre (structure), ancient Greek theatre and Roman theatre (structure), Roman theatre, but it was only a quarter of the size and was provided with a roof for acoustics, acoustic purposes, a characteristic difference. The prototype odeon was the Odeon of Pericles (Odeon of Pericles, Odeon of Athens), a mainly wooden building by the southern slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It was described by Plutarch as "many-seated and many-columned" a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naumachia
A naumachia (in Latin , from the Ancient Greek /, literally "naval combat") was a mock naval battle staged as mass entertainment by the Ancient Romans. The staging would typically occur in a specially-dug basin, also known as a naumachia. Early The first known was given by Julius Caesar in Rome in 46 BC on occasion of his quadruple triumph. After having a basin dug near the Tiber, capable of holding actual biremes, triremes and quinqueremes, he made 2,000 combatants and 4,000 rowers, all prisoners of war, fight. In 2 BC for the inauguration of the Temple of Mars Ultor (" Mars the Avenger"), Augustus gave a grander based on Caesar's model. This naumachia depicted a battle between the Greeks and the Persians and required a basin that was 400 by 600 yards, which was created straddling the Tiber. '' Res Gestæ'' (§ 23) claimed that 3000 men, not counting rowers, fought in 30 vessels with rams and several smaller boats. In 52 AD, Claudius gave what was possibly the most "ep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1693 Sicily Earthquake
The 1693 Sicily earthquake was a natural disaster that struck parts of southern Italy near Sicily, then a territory part of the Crown of Aragon by the Kings of Spain Calabria and Malta, on 11 January at around 21:00 local time. This earthquake was preceded by a damaging foreshock on 9 January. The main quake had an estimated magnitude of 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, the most powerful in recorded Italian history, and a maximum intensity of XI (''Extreme'') on the Mercalli intensity scale, destroying at least 70 towns and cities, seriously affecting an area of and causing the death of about 60,000 people. The earthquake was followed by a number of tsunamis that devastated the coastal villages on the Ionian Sea and in the Straits of Messina. Almost two-thirds of the entire population of Catania were killed. The Epicenter, epicentre of the disaster was probably close to the coast, possibly offshore, although the exact position remains unknown. The extent and level of destruction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
