THE ROMAN MOSAICS AT PIAZZA ARMERINA

The medieval appearance of Piazza Armenia is manifest in some of its noble palaces of Norman and Gothic architecture. Situated on three hills on the Erei Mountains, the town is dominated by the Aragonese Castle built at the end of the 14th century and by the Duomo, dedicated to Mary of the Assumption, dating back to the 18th century. Piazza Armerina is the seat of the most famous Palio dei Normanni, from the 12th to the 14th of August, a competition of knightly combat and horsemanship which records the heroics of the Norman invaders who defeated the Arabs around 1060. Ties with its Norman saviours and the subsequent arrival of immigrants from Lombardy are still visible through the local dialect, a kind of Gallic Italian. Close by, Villa Romana del Casale houses the famous and well-preserved Roman mosaics. With their figurative style, realism of the subjects and range of colours, constitute a document of inestimable artistic value and rare font of knowledge regarding the customs and practices of the Roman period. Built in the middle of the 4th century AD as a hunting lodge by a Roman patrician, these extraordinarily vivid mosaics, probably produced by North African artisans, deal with numerous subjects, ranging from Homeric escapades and mythological scenes to portrayals of daily life, including the famous tableau of girls exercising in their ‘bikinis’. Almost completely covered by a landslide in the 12th century, the Villa was partly rediscovered in the 19th century but it wasn’t until the 20th century that the magnitude and magnificence of the Villa came to light. It was recently recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. According to legend, the nearby town of Morgantina was founded by King Morges who arrived with colonists from central Italy around 1300 BC. The early Morgetian culture was therefore somewhat distinct from the native Siculian civilization. The Greeks absorbed the city some six centuries later. It was destroyed by the Romans during the Punic Wars in 211 BC and eventually rebuilt as a Roman settlement. Although it had been a wealthy and prosperous town, Morgantina was abandoned around 30 BC for unknown reasons. In the well-preserved archeological site are to be found remains of the ‘Agorà’ with its Roman shops, fountains, temples, Roman Gymnasium and Greek Theatre which dates back to the 4th BC century. A collection of relics from the archeological site are displayed in the museum of Aidone. Morgantina has been the principal site of American research on classical since 1955.

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