Tapestry Museum
In the museum there are eight magnificent Flemish tapestries, donated to the Mother Church in 1589 by Mons. Antonio Lombardo who had probably received them as a gift from the Queen of Spain.
The tapestries were made with an elegant threading of wool and silk, finely coloured and in a vertical wool warp, by the tapestry maker from Brussels Cornelis Tons who was active between 1550 and 1575. They are from cartoons by the Flemish painter Peter De Kempeneer who worked in Italy in the suite of Polidoro da Caravaggio. Inside the frames decorated with flowers, fruit and joyful figures, there is the portrayal of eight scenes from the Judaic-Roman war for the conquest of Jerusalem fought by Vespasiano and his son Tito, according to the writings of Giuseppe Flavio in De bello Judaico. |
E. Sollima Theatre
Founded in 1817 on the wishes of Giovanni Nuccio, it functioned until 1826, the year the owner died and who in his will requested its closure. In 1840 it was bought by the town council who destined it for use as a music centre; restructured 1880 to the plans of Antonio Tumbarello, it assumed a neoclassic appearence, which was the fashion of the time for theatres. The internal decoration was entrusted to the Florentine painter Tito Covoni. In the post-war period, it was seat of political debates for the election of the first republican parliament. In 1952 it ceased to function and after the 1968 earthquake it was declared inaccessible. Restored, in 1994 it went back to its original function, concerts, and prose performances are held here.
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Wine fountain
The wine fountain realized in 1978 by Salvatore Fiume with the bacchante and a kicking donkey carrying a barrel on his back, symbolises the generosity of a land based on agriculture. In the city of wine, the sculptural group, in fact is to highlight the two main social-economic aspects of the territory: the cultivation of the vines and the consequential wine production. The donkey, a fundamental part of past Sicilian farming life, symbolises work, the bacchante symbolises the wine.
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