Syracuse in the Middle Ages

1. Syracuse in the Middle ages
Archeological itinerary

2. Medieval quarters of Ortygia

3. Maniace Castle
The original building of the Castello Maniace is due to
the emperor Frederick II, who commissioned the
realization to the architect Riccardo da Lentini between
1232 and 1239 shortly after returning from the crusade
in the Holy land. The construction took place in the same
amount of time that sprang up a few other castles of
Frederick II "from Sicily and southern Italy .

4. Maniace Castle is located on the very tip
of Ortigia, in control of the port and the
city of Syracuse. It was built according to
precise rules of rationality, geometry,
symmetry. The building is square,
enclosed by a mighty wall with four
cylindrical towers at the corners. Outside
was visible a great base shoe, which is
then went underground. The name leads
to the Byzantine General George
Maniaces reconquered the city from the
Arabs, in 1038.
Within the environment must have seemed
like a single room with 16 free-standing
columns, 4 columns and perimeter columns
that supported 16 25 bays, covered by cross
vaults . Four monumental chimneys mark
the corners of the walls. The central span
was interpreted as open air courtyard, with
a central pool. The different structural
nature of the columns of the Central Bay,
formed by monolithic columns of granite put
together, would give credence to the
hypothesis that sprang after recent
explorations, a central span blanket like the
other but more emphasized

5. Castello Maniace

6. According to tradition, two bronze Rams were brought from Constantinople to
Syracuse by the Byzantine Admiral George Maniaces and placed at the fortress he
built in that city [1], but this tradition seems rather questionable when compared
with winning strategies of Maniace in Sicily: another hypothesis aims that the
Rams have been unearthed in occasional digs in the same town aretusea
Anonymus ( Lisyppo
school?
III century b.C.
Bronze
Palermo Museo
Salinas

7. Palazzo Montalto
The building has a valuable 14th-century prospectus, with well carved dark stones.
The arched door in the lower body also serves as a Base: in the second level, there are
three large Windows with geometric and floral decorations, an ogival mullioned
window, a three-light window and a Lancet window. Within each lunette are placed
small rosettes, arched over the door, it's a pretty newsagent, decorated with various
family crests.
Inside is an atrium with outdoor staircase, next to a
Renaissance portico surmounted by a loggia

8. Palazzo Mergulese-Montalto was erected in 1397 by an unknown architect at the
behest of the noblewoman Macciotta Mergulese. In the fifteenth century, Constance
of Aragon gave it to the family Montalto. In 1837, was used as a hospital following the
cholera and in 1854 received the religious community of the daughters of charity. The
building, a perfect fusion of styles aragonese and Catalan, is one of the best examples
of Chiaramonte Gothic, quite unusual in Syracuse, in buildings of that period
Above the door is a beautiful ogival
newsstand, decorated with various family
crests. A little below the coat of arms of
Mergulese, surmounted by a large M and the
Latin inscriptionHAEC MIRGULENSIS MAC /
CIOTTA PALATIA STRUXIT / CUI SUARUM
SUMMA VIRTUTUM / COPIA SURGIT / ANNO
MILLENO TERCEN / TENO NONAGENO /
SEPTENO MUNDO VERNO / VENIENTE
SUPREMO

9. Palazzo Bellomo
The palazzo Bellomo is a 13th-14th century. The building has
two distinct phases: the Swabian age, identifiable in all bastion
of the ground floor and in the 15th century, and the Gothic
portal, identifiable around the upper floor.

10. In 1365 the Palace became the property to Bellomo, Roman noble family came to
Sicily with Frederick III of Aragon. In this period was carried on the raising of the
Palace that has clear influences of Catalan art from the 15th century. In 1722 the nuns
of the nearby monastery of San Benedetto bought it and used it as a warehouse a
dormitory.
In 1948 it was turned into a Museum and it contains medieval and modern art
collection.
The Annunciation by Antonello da Messina( 1474)

11. In the island of Ortigia survive the remains of what is considered a mikvé (or mikveh),
a ritual purification bath, right in the area of Giudecca (the city's Jewish quarter until
1493) in the basement of a patrician building which now houses a hotel. The mikveh
was used most often by women, especially following menstruation or childbirth but
also brides just before marriage. Men sometimes bathed in it to achieve purity
following intimate relations with their wives, and bridegrooms bathed just before
marriage. Immersion was part of the rite of conversion to Judaism by Gentiles (in this
way Baptism is very similar to tevileh), and priests bathed during consecration and in
preparation for performing certain rites. Bathing in a mikveh was required after
contact with a corpse. The purpose of immersion in the mikveh was not physical
cleansing - one must be clean before entering - but achieving spiritual purity or
renewal.
Church Of St. John the Baptist (1380), the site
of the Synagogue

12. Established after the Sicilian Vespers and the expulsion of the Angevins from Sicily
the Camera Reginale constituted a sort of "State within a State" and consisted of the
fief of a group of cities whose annuities served as personal assets of the Queens of the
Kingdom of Sicily and Naples. It was a sort of endowment given to the bride by the
groom himself, and passed by regina in regina.
The Camera Reginale constituted a proper dowry given by Frederick III of Aragon, King
of Sicily, his wife Eleanor of Naples as a wedding gift in 1302.
The presence of a court favored the revival of a political class-local bureaucratic, and
gave the city an elegant Gothic style, here comes with local characters owe much to
the Gothic Catalan (less linked to the presence of the pointed arch, less led to
momentum in height, much more sober and fonder of closed surfaces and smooth
than they are the results of the International Gothic , especially the "Flaming").

13. • Decay caused by suppression of the Regional
Chamber would have curbed the further
development, while maintaining a
fundamentally Gothic and Renaissance aspect
to the town, until the earthquake intervened
in the Baroque period would force him to
rebuild much of Syracuse in dominant style at
the time of the quake.
In 1517, Charles V
ascended to the throne
after the death of his
wife Germana (1538),
suppressed the Camera
Reginale

14. The Lanza palace is located southwest of the Archimede square, is a palace built in the
late Renaissance dating back to 1300, 1400, however, that Catalan and remaking
respectively dating back to 1500-1600. It presents a rather understated façade
features a simple rectangular portal and mullioned Windows (some of which
conspicuously ruined)
Inside there is a fine Gothic-Catalan courtyard.

15. Via Amalfitania.
A medieval road that testifies trades between Syracuse and the seafaring town of
Amalfi during the Middle ages.

16. Palazzo Abela
Built in the 14th century and restructured in the 18th century.
The prospect has two portals, one smaller arches, and the other arches. The
façade has also pointed and narrow slits of mullioned Windows

17. Chiesa di S. Giovanni alle
Catacombe The South façade of the Church which can be seen,
destroyed by an earthquake in 1693 (he ruined the
Great Basilica), and rebuilt in ' 700 with significant
changes to the same façade and the portico whose
reconstruction were used elements; On the left you
notice the old Norman façade marked by ornate
portal and rose window
For a long time in this church
was recognized an ancient
Cathedral of Syracuse, built in
Acradina, extra moenia, in the
region of the catacombs, in
the place where, according to
tradition, was buried the first
bishop of Syracuse, san
Marciano, martyred under
Gallienus and Valerianus (mid
3rd century); recent studies,
however, have dented this
hypothesis.

18. Dating back to the Norman period, is mistakenly held Interior remains, due to the many Byzantine
traits from the bare material. The portal, aragonese age is made of limestone with a deep splay
widely modulated by beams and columns with elegant capitals with floral motifs. The Lunette is
blind, while in the stone face you notice a large block of limestone on which is engraved in Gothic
letters the monogram of Christ; below this, in a big block of marble you notice the coat of arms of
the House of Aragon and date 1388
Chiesa di San Martino

19. Chiesa di S. Lucia extra
moenia
Other interventions were made during the ' 600,
maybe by Giovanni Vermexio, who built shortly after
the nearby church of the Holy Sepulchre (1629),
while not resulting in some documentation
The Church is documented
since 1100, it is probably
located in the same place
where there was a Byzantine
basilica destroyed by the
Arabs. Of the Norman Basilica
plan with apses, preserve the
façade, the bricked fractional
portal with characteristic
capitals and the first two
orders of the Bell Tower.
Subsequent rearrangements
have changed the appearance
beginning in the 14th century,
period in which it traced the
rose window on the façade..