Page 345 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

he plundered from many Sicilian temples. The doors were of ivory and gold, and its

walls painted with military scenes and portraits of various of Syracuse’s tyrants –
claimed to be the earliest examples of portraiture in European art. On the temple’s
roof stood a tall statue of the warrior-goddess Athena carrying a golden shield which,
catching the sun’s rays, served as a beacon for sailors out at sea.

Although all this rich decoration has vanished, the main body of the temple was
saved further despoliation thanks to its conversion into a Christian church, which was
elevated to cathedral status in 640 AD. A more drastic overhaul was carried out after

the 1693 earthquake, when the Norman facade collapsed and was replaced by the
present formidable Baroque front, with statues by Marabitti. This is in sharp contrast
to the more muted interior, in which it’s the frame of the ancient temple that is still
prevalent. The aisles are formed by the massive Doric columns, while the cella walls

were hacked through to make the present arched nave. Along the north aisle, the
distorted pillars give some inkling of how close the entire structure came to toppling
when the seventeenth-century earthquake hit Siracusa. The Duomo’s south aisle shows
more characteristic Baroque effusion in the series of richly ornate chapels, though the
first one (nearest the main door, on the right) – actually the baptistery – is from an
earlier age. Enlivened by some twelfth-century arabesque mosaics, it contains a
Norman font that was cut from a block still marked with a Greek inscription, and is

supported by seven bronze lions.