Page 489 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

blanching in its effect. The temple itself, started in 424 BC, crowns a low hill beyond
the café and car park. From a distance you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s
complete: the 36 regular stone columns, entablature and pediment are all intact, and all
it lacks is a roof. However, get closer (and for once you’re allowed to roam right
inside) and you see just how unfinished the building really is: stone studs, always
removed on completion, still line the stylobate, the tall columns are unfluted, and the

cella walls are missing. In a way, this only adds to the natural grandeur of the site, and
it’s not too fanciful to imagine that the pitted and sun-bleached temple simply grew
here – a feeling bolstered by the birds nesting in the unfinished capitals, the lizards
scampering over the pale yellow stone, and, in spring, the riot of flowers underfoot.

From the main entrance, a road winds up through slopes of wild fennel to a small
theatre on a higher hill beyond; if you don’t relish the twenty-minute climb you can

use the bus service. The view from the top is terrific, across green slopes and the
plain to the sea, the deep blue of the bay a lovely contrast to the theatre’s white stone –
the panorama not much damaged by the motorway snaking away below.

Behind the theatre, excavations (explained by information boards) have revealed the
foundations of a mosque and Arab-style houses. These were pulled down in the
thirteenth century when a Norman castle was erected on the high ground – though this

itself lasted less than a hundred years, as political forces on the island waxed and
waned. There are also the remains of a late medieval church, built for local shepherds
and landholders and used, in one form or another, until the nineteenth century. Thus it
is a site of enormous significance and utility, spanning generations.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: SEGESTA

By bus Tarantola buses run direct to Segesta from Piazza Malta in Trapani, leaving at
8am, 10am, noon and 2pm (Sun 10am only), returning at 12.50pm, 1.05pm, 4.05pm
and 6.30pm (Sun 1.05pm only). There are also bus services from Castellammare del
Golfo and Palermo.

By train There are four trains daily from Trapani to Segesta-Calatafimi, from where
it’s a 20min uphill walk to the site.

By car If you’re driving, it’s easiest to see the site en route between Palermo and
Trapani, since it lies just off the motorway.

< Back to Trapani and the west

Calatafimi

Defended by a castle (hence the Arabic kalat of its name) whose remnants top a
wooded hill, CALATAFIMI gained fame as the site of the first of Garibaldi’s