Segesta Hotel Centrale

Segesta, the ancient settlement of the Elimi people, is today one of the most important archaeological sites and evocative of Sicily where are the best preserved examples of Doric architecture. The ancient city is located in the northwestern part of Sicily and is located on Mount Bàrbaro, in the municipality of Calatafimi Segesta, about ten kilometers from Alcamo and Castellammare del Golfo. The date of foundation is not known, but documents show that the city was inhabited in the fourth century BC and that the Trojan refugees, crossing the Mediterranean Sea, they came to Sicily, Segesta and founded, called Aegesta, and Erice. These refugees took the name of Elimi.
Of particular beauty are the temple and the theater. The temple was built in 430 BC, and to this day, remains almost completely intact 36 columns, magnificent limestone of a golden tint and no grooves. In the eighteenth century the temple was first the subject of a restoration by the architect Chenchi. It was visited by Goethe, and became one of the destinations of the Grand Tour and one of the causes of the rediscovery of Greek and Doric was the roots of neoclassicism. The theater, however, is in Doric style, and is partly carved into the rock of the hill. Built in the third century. BC in the Hellenistic period, but under Roman rule, consists of a perfect and vast semi-circle of 63 m diameter placed on a rocky slope, the steps are oriented towards the hills behind which, on the right, you can see the Gulf of Castellammare. The upper zone is partially destroyed, and very little is also the scene, according to scholars who would have been decorated with columns and pillars. Following a careful restoration, today the theater is used in the summer for the representation of the great tragedies and comedies that bound the Ancients.