Sunday Sept 17 – Roamin’ through the ruins; coolin’ off in the catacombs.

After a leisurely breakfast this morning we walked down to the train station then caught a taxi up to the Archaeological Parc della Neapolis, a huge expanse of ruins from Greek and Roman times.  First to the remains of the 1^st century A.D. Roman amphitheatre, where gladiatorial contests and horse races were held to amuse the Syracusans.  West of the amphitheatre is the 3rd-century-BC Ara di Gerone II, a monolithic sacrificial altar to Heron II, where up to 450 oxen could be killed at one time. Then we trudged up a long winding path to above the Greek theatre, built in the 5th century B.C., with 42 rows of seats directly hewn out of the rock, giving it a seating capacity of about 16,000 patrons. The Romans, who didn’t take live theatre as seriously as the Greeks, later adapted the theatre so that they could flood the stage and present mock sea battles.  Above the theatre, there are numerous niches that were used as votive altars, and one niche that still collects fresh water from an ancient aqueduct – very refreshing! 

Back down to the Latomia de Paradiso (Garden of Paradise), a deep and lush limestone quarry, from which stone for the ancient city was extracted.  It is riddled with catacombs and it is also where 7,000 defeated soldiers of the war between Syracuse and Athens in 413 B.C. were imprisoned (it must have been a bit cramped!).  A 23 metre high grotto extending 65 metres back into the hillside was named by Caravaggio after the tyrant Dionysius, who is said to have used the acoustics of the quarry to eavesdrop on his prisoners.

We left the archaeological park and walked a few hundred metres to the Catacombs of St John.  In Roman times, Christians were not allowed to bury their dead within the city limits, so they went outside the boundaries of Syracuse to create burial chambers in what had been used by the Greeks as underground aqueducts. The early Christians recycled these into chapels and niches were carved into either side of the vast tunnels (the entire system of tunnels covers about one hectare) to inter up to 10,000 dead, between the 1^st and 4^th centuries A.D. (the bodies were embalmed, placed in the niches then covered with earth).  Many of the chapels, set up where tunnels intersected, were adorned with Byzantine-style frescoes, remnants of which can still be seen.  The catacombs commence under the remains of the Church of St John, erected as a basilica in the 6^th century A.D. on the spot where St Marcian is said to have been thrown off a tower in 255 A.D.  It was destroyed by the Saracens, however the Normans reconstructed it in the 12th century and it served as the cathedral of Syracuse.  More bad luck in 1693 when an earthquake destroyed it; a baroque church was then built, but was abandoned in the 17th century and left in ruins by the earthquake of 1908.

Then a walk through very modern Sanctuary of Madonna delle Lacrime (Our Lady of Tears), completed in 1994.  On the floor of the crypt are preserved the remains of Roman and late antique age consisting of a pagan hypogeum and a large room with walls decorated with mosaics. We concluded our day’s explorations with a late lunch at Café Giovanni then walked back through the stifling heat to our comfy apartment for an easy afternoon.  Tomorrow – on the train to the hill-town of Noto.