Art and History in Syracuse
Syracuse experienced three distinct movements of exceptional development in art and culture.
The first was the Greek era, when the city was a metropolis comprising hundreds of thousands of inhabitants and a fleet that sailed throughout the Mediterranean.
The second was the period of Gothic art and the Early Renaissance, when it was the capital of the Camera Reginale ("Queen's Chamber"), a sort of personal fiefdom of the queens of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples.
The third was the Baroque period, when Syracuse had to be partially reconstructed after suffering damage from an earthquake in 1693.
A Large Greek Metropolis on the Mediterranean
Few recall that before the Roman conquest Syracuse was, for a long time, one of the grand metropolises of the Mediterranean and the only one able to fight the Carthaginians, to defeat the fleet of the Etruscans, or to engage in battle with the fleet of Athens, to the point of suffering – and repelling! – a double attack (in 433 and 416 B.C.).
One is perhaps misled by the memory of Syracuse as it returned to being after the fall of the Roman Empire: a city of a certain political and cultural weight but restricted once again to the island of Ortigia where it originated. Instead, at the time of the “tyrants” (the somewhat flattering name by which the kings were called by their enemies), Syracuse had a footprint equal to that of today, as anyone traveling from Ortigia to the archeological area will notice.
Syracuse was the object of a careful plan of reconstruction and expansion (aided by the forced deportation of the populations from several defeated cities), evidence of which is still noticeable in many places. Moreover, it says something that for the construction of the wall and fortifications, at a time of war against the Carthaginians for control over Sicily, Syracuse could mobilize as many as 60,000 men at a time and also manage to build ramparts in record time, thus thwarting enemy attack.
Its extraordinary power and wealth made the ancient city a point of international attraction for the most famous Greek intellectuals. Among the illustrious names that stayed in Syracuse we find: Plato, Pindar, Aeschylus, Simonides, Bacchylides, Sofrone, Epicharmus, and so on.
Being familiar with these circumstances allows one to more easily understand the splendor and size of Syracuse’s monuments from the Greek period. Even if they were, unfortunately, half demolished in modern times to recover their stones, what remains is enough to rank them among the most important and beautiful that the Greeks had left in Italy, thus rendering Syracuse worthy of a leisurely visit.
A Middle Age not so Dark
After the Arabic rule, the Christian re-conquest by the Normans left Syracuse competing in importance with Palermo. The Medieval period was certainly not “dark” for the city; on the contrary, Syracuse experienced a period of prosperity that left its mark on the plan of the city as well. The Castello Maniace, built under the reign of the Swabian dynasty, and invoking elements of Gothic architecture still today is certainly the most renowned and best-preserved monument of this period.
Beyond this, it is worth noting how much remains of the Gothic buildings constructed during the period in which Syracuse had the rank of capital of the Camera Reginale (1302-1537), among them the Palazzo della Camera Reginale itself (located a few meters from Piazza Archimede).
The Camera Reginale constitutes a sort of “state within a state” and was formed from a fiefdom of a group of cities from which revenues were used for the personal patrimony of the ruler of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples. It was a sort of endowment given to the bride by the groom himself and was passed down from queen consort to queen consort.
The presence of the Camera fostered the rebirth of a local political-bureaucratic class and left the city with an elegant Gothic imprint that bears the impression of local characteristics. This aesthetic moment owes much to the Catalan Gothic (less bound by the presence of the pointed arch, less likely to feature soaring surfaces, much more sober, and favoring closed and smooth surfaces than those that characterize the international gothic style, especially “flaming”).
The relative decline caused by the suppression of the Camera Reginale would hold back further building, conserving the fundamental Gothic and Renaissance flavor of the city until an earthquake struck in the Baroque period. The damage resulting from this natural disaster forced the rebuilding of a large part of Syracuse in the dominant style of the time.
Despite this, several very elegant buildings that survived this and other earthquakes are scatters throughout the city and can be admired even today.
Among these are: the Palazzo Bellomo (seat of the Galleria Regionale), Palazzo Mergulese Montalto, Porta Marina, Palazzo Chiaramonte, the Maniace Castle, the church of San Martino, Palazzo Gargallo, and the church of San Pietro al Carmine.
Jewels of the Baroque
The great earthquake of January 11, 1693 was judged to be the most devastating that Sicily had ever suffered in its history, if one excludes the 1908 Messina earthquake.
More than 45 villages were destroyed and approximately 60,000 deaths occurred. Several towns were literally razed to the ground, as was the case with the not-so-distant Noto.This city was reconstructed from the ground up, thus resulting in its moniker of the “Capital of the Baroque.”
Even though, in the case of Syracuse, complete reconstruction from scratch was not necessary, the rebuilding nevertheless resulted in a prevalently Baroque style with just a few surviving Gothic and Renaissance monuments.
The local limestone, which was easy to work with, allowed the stone cutters and the sculptors to indulge in those lacy stone balconies and façades that the buildings display in abundance.
The local Baroque style is lighter and less elaborate than that, equally known, of Lecce, and accordinggly leads to an airier result. The Syracusan Baroque , however, is no less fanciful: no two Baroque balconies are the same, and all compete in the pursuit of “invention” so dear to the Baroque style.
Given the sheer quantity, it is impossible to list all of the Baroque buildings of Syracuse.
One is advised to follow on foot the principal streets of Ortigia (such as Via Vittorio Veneto – on which sits the Algilà Ortigia Charme Hotel – Via Maestranza, Via Giudecca…) to discover the thousands of surprises of Baroque Syracuse.
Following the explosive building period of the Baroque, the city would enter a period of economic and political stagnation until the unification of Italy. At this point in the nineteenth century, expansion began encroaching upon the borders of the Greek city and, in the end, overtook them.
Decadence and Resurrection of Ortigia
Those who visited the island of Ortigia in the 1980s or 1990s will remember the abandoned condition in which they found it. The social changes in Italy after the war combined with emigration and the industrialization around Syracuse, brought progressive depopulation to the island.
Emptied of its inhabitants many of whom moved to new and more spacious houses on the mainland, and no longer undergoing maintenance, Ortigia literally began to fall to pieces.
Fortunately, after the mobilization of many people and associations who had fought a substantial battle to save its heritage, the island since proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO) was able to benefit from intervention and financing in the last 20 years.
This reinvestment triggered a beneficial wave of restoration and redevelopment that has literally changed the face of the city. While it is true that one can still notice while walking around Ortigia buildings that are crumbling (although still beautiful), by now a large part of the island has returned to its original splendor.
This phenomenon, however, unfortunately also had its disadvantages. The decision to save all of the island at once has, in fact, resulted in delays and difficulties. For many years visitors would therefore find some, if not most, of the monuments they had hoped to visit “closed for restoration”.
Fortunately, this phase is by now mostly over, and apart from a few drawbacks, most of the island and all its museums are now open to visitors again.
