Jan 9th: Siracusa Again

Siracusa has 2700 years of history so there’s plenty to see. We’d been told that the catacombs were worth a visit. So here we are at the entrance, a lovely old ruined church. Problem: closed.

But just round the corner was another interesting building. See if you can guess what it is.

It looks like a space museum or a ship’s sail but is in fact the Cathedral of the Madonna delle Lacrime, the Madonna of the tears. It’s dedicated to a statue of the Madonna that, we are reliably informed, shed real human tears from 29^th Aug to 1^st Sept 1953. It seems unfair to let the antiquities in Syracuse hog the whole show, so let’s go inside and have a look at something totally modern. Here’s the lower floor.

It’s a large area featuring in the foreground what must have been the foundations of an ancient church. The brightly coloured blue-and-green “fishing umbrella” contains religious effigies when viewed from the other side. It’s a stark and sombre but powerful effect, very much in keeping with the solemn atmosphere of the ancient cathedrals.

The level above doesn’t really come over in the same way.

 

Again, it’s a vast space, now directly under the tall concrete conical spire. This floor is a cross between a Star Trek set and a multi-storey car park and it’s lost the tranquil dignity of the lower level. You just can’t win as a modern designer.

Now here’s an unusual find in the cathedral grounds

Well, yes, it’s a tree, with some quite pretty blooms that are too far away to see properly. And there are big khaki pods, also too far away to see properly, some of which are splitting with white cotton fibre spilling out. It’s a silk floss tree, related to the better known kapok tree whose fibres are also used commercially for stuffing. What you also can’t see is the spikey bark, one of just a few trees in the world with this sort of protection.

Below is a close-up. The spikes are a good two inches long and razor sharp. I shouldn’t think they get too many drunks lurching against these of an evening.

So an unscheduled but interesting morning visit. We had a less interesting pizza for lunch, and then on to the Neapolis, a large archaeological park, in the afternoon. That’s another blog.