Page 355 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

Teatro Greco

You may be asked to show your ticket again at the office at the foot of the steps
leading up to the Teatro Greco, Siracusa’s most spectacular monument. One of the

largest and best-preserved Greek auditoriums anywhere, its site has been home to a
theatre since at least the fifth century BC, though it was frequently added to at different
periods. Hieron II expanded it to accommodate 15,000 people, in nine sections of 59
rows (of which 42 remain). The inscriptions around the top of the middle gangway on
the west side of the theatre – faint but still visible – date from the third century BC,
giving the names of the ruler and his family, with Zeus Olympios in the middle. Most
of the alterations carried out by the Romans were made to adapt the arena for

gladiatorial combat, and they also installed some marble-faced seats for privileged
spectators, while the seventeenth row was removed, possibly to segregate the classes.
The high terrace above the theatre contains the Nymphaeum, a large artificial grotto
(fed by water from an ancient aqueduct) where a number of statues were found. To the

left of here, the overgrown Via dei Sepolcri (Street of the Tombs) is deeply rutted by
the carts that plied to and fro, and is flanked by more votive niches.

Latomia del Paradiso
From the ticket office at the foot of the steps to the Teatro Greco, a path descends to

the largest of Siracusa’s huge latomie (pits or quarries), from which the rock for the
city’s multifarious monuments was excavated. Now planted with citrus, oleander and
bay trees, the so-called Latomia del Paradiso is more garden than quarry, and a
steady stream of tour parties troops down mainly to see the remarkable ear-shaped
cavern known as the Orecchio di Dionisio (Ear of Dionysius), which is over 60m long

and 20m high. A second cave, the Grotta dei Cordari, was used by the ancient city’s
ropemakers, who found that its damp air prevented rope strands from breaking under
stress.

Latomie dei Cappuccini

Largo Latomie 3 • Mon–Fri 9.30am–1.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–1pm & 4.30–7.30pm • €3 • 0931 411 394

Gouged out of the hillside below the Cappuccini monastery and Grand Hotel Villa
Politi, the wide, vertically walled quarries of the Latomie dei Cappuccini provided a
harsh but effective prison for the 7000 Athenian prisoners of war following the fiasco
of the Great Expedition. The quarries were acquired by Capuchin monks in the
sixteenth century, who turned them into both market garden and contemplative retreat,
which is why the cavern floors are so lush. Sinuous paths wind through the overgrown

quarries, past natural rock pillars, huge caverns and early Christian tombs – there’s
even a cavern-theatre down here, sometimes used for performances, usually
advertised by posters around town.