Erice

Erice

There are days when Erice floats above the clouds. Mount Erice — that triangle of white limestone rising 751 metres above Trapani and the salt pans — climbs so sharply from the sea that its summit is often wrapped in fog. Anyone arriving by cable car from Casa Santa watches the town appear and disappear through drifting mist, as if the village did not quite belong to the world below.

The town is medieval in appearance, Elymian-Phoenician in its oldest walls, Roman in the cult of its goddess, Norman in the castle that dominates its hill. The streets — here called vanedde, small cobbled lanes — trace a perfect triangle, the same shape as the mountain. You walk slowly, pass under stone arches, catch the scent of almonds from the pastry-shop ovens: Erice is a town to savour.

"The air is always pure and light; the view, of rare beauty, extends over Trapani and the Egadi Islands."
— Vincenzo Adragna, historian of Erice

The temple of Venus and the castle that took its place

Before becoming a medieval town, Erice was a sanctuary. On the highest point of the mountain the Elymians raised a temple to a female deity whom the Phoenicians identified with Astarte, the Greeks with Aphrodite, the Romans with Venus Erycina. The cult was so revered that pilgrims arrived from across the Mediterranean; the sacred priestess-prostitutes of "temple prostitution" were both subject of ancient tales and scandal to Roman censors. The temple gradually disappeared in the imperial age, and above its ruins — reusing stones and blocks — the Normans built the Castle of Venus in the twelfth-thirteenth century, still today the silhouette on the summit.

The cyclopean walls and the castles

Erice preserves overlapping historical layers still visible today as you walk.

Giardini del Balio in Sicilia | © Archivio West of Sicily

Tramonto a Erice | © Archivio West of Sicily

Panorama a Erice | © Archivio West of Sicily

Torretta Pepoli | © Archivio West of Sicily

Borgo di Erice | © Archivio West of Sicily

Borgo di Erice | © Archivio West of Sicily

The town of 40 churches and the Mother Church

At one point in its history Erice counted almost forty churches, an extraordinary number for a town of a few thousand souls. The most important is the Chiesa Madre (Real Duomo), built in the fourteenth century with stones from the ancient temple and recognisable by its great Gothic rose window on the façade and its isolated bell tower — a true watchtower converted into a belfry. Inside, a fifteenth-century baptismal font and a statue of the Madonna attributed to the workshop of Francesco Laurana.

Not far away, the Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista preserves sculptures from the workshop of Antonello Gagini, one of the greatest masters of the Sicilian Renaissance. The old town is dotted with other churches — San Giuliano, San Martino, San Cataldo, San Pietro — telling how many religious orders have left their mark on this mountain.

The city of science

In 1963 the physicist Antonino Zichichi founded in Erice the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture, which over the years has hosted Nobel laureates, researchers and summer schools in physics, biology and medicine. Sciascia was a recurring guest, Dirac and Feynman came: the medieval village of 20,000 inhabitants has found itself, for a few weeks each year, the headquarters of world physics. The Centre's premises occupy former monasteries and old palaces, restored for use — a striking dialogue between medieval stone and contemporary research.

Convent sweets

Erice's confectionery tradition was born in the convents. For centuries the cloistered nuns prepared, behind the grilles, the dolci di badia ("convent sweets"): almond pastes, marzipan shaped like fruit, honey biscuits. Even today the Maria Grammatico pastry shop — her founder grew up in a convent orphanage where she learned the recipes — is a mandatory pilgrimage. The genovesi (small pastry rounds filled with warm custard cream), the almond bocconcini, the spiced mustaccioli, marzipan in the shape of peaches and prickly pears. Worth a stop at the café.

Views

From the top of Erice you see a portion of western Sicily that alone is worth the journey. West: Trapani curving into the sea, with the salt-pan windmills and the Egadi Islands (Favignana, Levanzo, Marettimo) on the horizon. South: Mozia, Marsala, and on clear days as far as Ustica. East: Monte Cofano and the profile of the Gulf of Castellammare. North: open sea. The terrace of the Balio Gardens, at the entrance to the Castle, is perhaps the best place to take it all in.

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