SiracusaPalazzolo Acreide.
Syracuse founded here in 664 BC the city of Akrai. which played an important role in the control of the paths of communication with the towns on the S coast. Civitas stipendiaria under the Romans, it was still prospering in the early Christian age. It was probably later destroyed by the Arabs. A Norman castle, no longer extant, led to new development of the town. The 1693 earth-quake, with its terrible devastations, necessitated further patient reconstruction work.

Anthony Blunt, in his outstanding book on the Sicilian Baroque, informs us that the longest baroque balcony in the island is at Palazzolo Acreide (unfortunately it is not also the most beautiful, mainly because of the mediocre masks of the corbels). All, or nearly all, the rest of the baroque art of this pretty town, is however beautiful, as for example the portal of the Annunziata church, with spiral columns surrounded by vine tendrils, and the nearby Chiesa di San Paolo, whose portico is reminiscent of Palazzo Ducezio at Noto (which may be by the same architect; the experts are still however uncertain). We have gone to the highest point of the town. Let us now begin again, down below, to go through the picturesque lanes in the mediaeval part of the town. Here we can see the Casa-museo A. Uccello, a museum of peasant life, and the Chiesa Madre, San Nicolo’. Rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake. In the main streets, laid out in the 18th c., stand elegant dwellings such as Palazzo Zocco, with yet others in Via Garibaldi; Palazzo Cappellani (2Oth c.) is the seat of the Archaeological Museum. The town possesses an ancient theatre, which, though not very big, is pretty and well preserved in parts of the cavea and orchestra; it is stilI used for summer perfonnances. Here we are in the archaeological zone, among the excavations of Akrai, where the Syracusan Greek city was located. There are various traces also of the archaic age. Beside the theatre is the bouleuterion (meeting-place ), beyond which are two latomìe (quarries ), Intagliata and Intagliatella, which were places of worship, dwellings and necropolises. Finally, in the nearby country area of Santicello, are the rock sculptures which have become famous with the name of santoni: most of them represent the goddess Cybele, who was worshipped here.