Palazzolo Acreide

Palazzolo Acreide is one of the eight UNESCO Val di Noto Baroque towns inscribed in 2002 — and the only one built directly on top of an intact Greek colony. The Greek city Akrai was founded by Syracuse in 664 BC as the inland defensive outpost guarding the Iblei plateau between Syracuse and Gela; the Greek theatre (3rd c BC, 600 seats, perfectly preserved acoustics, still used for summer Greek-drama festivals in the original setting), the latomie (Greek-Roman quarries used as Christian catacombs), and the unique cluster of 12 rock-carved bas-relief figures known as i Santoni — life-size representations of the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her cult, carved into the cliff face 4th-3rd c BC, the only such Cybele sanctuary anywhere in the Greek-Roman Mediterranean — make Akrai/Palazzolo a major archaeological site distinct from the Sicilian coastal mainstream of Syracuse + Agrigento. After the catastrophic Val di Noto earthquake of 1693 destroyed the medieval town (75% of buildings collapsed, 60% of population died), Palazzolo was rebuilt in Sicilian-Baroque style — wide regular streets, palazzi in honey-coloured limestone, churches with concave façades and elaborate stairways — over the following 50 years.

The headline Baroque set-pieces are the Chiesa di San Sebastiano (1721, with the great curved staircase + concave façade), the Chiesa di San Paolo (1730, twin towers + organ), the Basilica di San Pietro, and the Palazzo Iudica-Cafici with its iconic stone-carved balconies (UNESCO emphasizes these). Palazzolo is on the Borghi più belli d'Italia list AND a Città del Tartufo (the Iblei plateau produces a distinctive black truffle harvested October-December). The food is Iblei-Sicilian: pasta with broccolo siciliano + ricotta salata, salsiccia palazzolese (the local fennel-spiced sausage, a registered Slow Food Presidium), the Iblei DOP olive oil, and the local Nero d'Avola from the surrounding hills. Festa di San Paolo in late June (with the great firework spectacle the night of 28-29 June) is the year's main event.