Day Tripping: Erice and Cave de Cusa

OK. It's still the same day, I know, but it's still raining with thunderstorms and we're not going anywhere.  What I don't get done this evening will be finished tomorrow.

Thursday, the 26th, we headed to Erice.   As I said in the previous post, I was trying to determine the house that my grandmother was born in.  Unfortunately all we could get from the regional archives in Erice was Contrada San Marco in Valderice.  That refers to a region in the commune and even Google doesn't show it.  This could easily have been an area of farms and homesteads without street designations or house numbers back in the 1880's.  It will have to wait for another trip to Sicily to delve into it further.  Just as looking for family of my grandfather's sister, Alberta, who did not emigrate to the US with my great grandmother, grandparents and great uncle Anthony.  I figure there was one of three reasons.  She was married, dead or in a convent.  Hopefully she was married and there are descendants in the Corleone area that will be willing to speak to me if I can find any.

Now, for Erice.  This is the third time Cathy and I have been there.  The last time was in 2010 with Rachel.  We stayed in a wonderful hotel/motel, La Pineta.  It's located on the northeast corner of the mountain top.  The town is triangular.  On the western corner is the Porta Trapani and the Chiesa Matrice, also called the Chiesa Reale since it was built as the King's church in the early 1400's.  The southeastern corner of the mountain is the Castello Venere.  This spot was originally a temple to Aphrodite, Venus to the Romans, and has a very interesting past.  It seems that ancient fishermen would come here for ritual "blessings" with the vestal priestesses.  If you are up on your Greek history you'll understand what that meant.  Wooo, Hooo!  Anyway, after an arduous ascent to the mountain top and a night of ritual sex the fishermen expected to be blessed with success at sea.  I can get behind that idea, but it was a hell of a long way to go.

Erice from the plain to the south

A slightly telephoto view.  The Castello is on the right hand side of the mountain top.

Porta Trapani, the main tourist entrance

Bozo and the Chiesa Matrice

The bell tower at the Chiesa Matrice.  You can pay a couple euros and climb to the top for a neat view of the town's rooftops.  We have photos at home from 2010.  Maybe I'll add them to this post later.

We headed up into the town.  Everything is either up or down in this place.  The streets are all cobblestone with marble keyways dividing the surface and dovetailed to keep the cobbles in place.  We noticed that dogs tended to walk on the marble.  Probably because it was smoother for their foot pads than some of the sharp cobble edges. 

The streets are narrow.  You'd be hard pressed to get two cars past each other.  The locals drive awfully fast too.  At least you can hear them coming.  It takes about ten minutes to walk to the main piazza, Piazza Umberto I, where the town hall and museo are located.  There must be at least a couple dozen churches still operating, or at least open to the public, in the city.  It's winter so none were open when we were there this time.  They are filled with interesting sculptures and art.  One, I believe the San Martino, is famous for its wooden carvings, and they are really worth the time and effort.  I'd recommend staying in the town for 3 days or more.  If you get tired of old stuff catch the funicular down to Trapani for a few hours.  It's warmer down there.  In June 2010 Trapani was at 89 F and sunny while Erice was 20 degrees cooler and enveloped in fog.  At night the tourist busses are gone and so are the crowds.  Take jackets and sweaters and long pants.  Walking the streets after dark is magical.  You really can't get too lost.  If you go too far you run into the city walls or go off a cliff.  There are some good restaurants and bars.  Our hotel was OK for breakfast but we found heading into town for dinner was the best.

Inside the Porta Trapani.  The left fork takes you to the Piazza Umberto I

Sicily from the north side.  This and the next two photos

Valderice from Erice

Typical street in Erice.  Note how the cobbles are held in place with the marble stones.

Chiesa San Martino

San Martino's bell tower

Chiesa di San Giuliano

Ex-Chiesa San Francisco

Bozo and view to the south over the salt pans of Trapani

On the road to the Castello Venere

Bozo at the gate!

Torretta Pepoli.  Built in the 1870's by Count Pepoli as a retreat for intellectuals, writers, poets, etc

Chiesa di San Giovanni on the east end of the town

San Giuliano from the Giardino del Balio, a large formal garden by the Castello

The Castello from the west

View to the south from west of the Castello

View to the east from north of the Castello.  The road on the left leads to the Torrette at the bottom

On Friday we went to Menfi to pick up some Mandarossa vino at the Cantine Settesoli.  When we left the weather was nice and we decided to go to the Cave di Cusa which is where the stone for the temples at Selinunte was quarried.  When we were at Selinunte earlier we did not have time to go to Cave di Cusa and on our way back from Mazara del Vallo by way of Granitola and Tre Fontane we drove past it but it was too late in the day and the place had closed early.  I guess no one had come by that day and the two guys who work there left, about an hour earlier than it was supposed to close.  Anyway, we headed west, past La Foresteria, Planeta's resort, past Selinunte to Campobello di Mazara and got to the quarry site.  This is an interesting place.  You get entry with the ticket for Selinunte so if you want to go be sure to save your ticket.  It's good for either 7 days or a month.  We told the guys at the "ticket office", which really isn't since they don't sell tickets, that we had been to Selinunte 2 weeks earlier so they let us go in.  

At this site you will find stones that were being chiseled out for temple columns but work was stopped before they were completed.  There are stones that had been finished and removed for transport lying around the site too.  The ones that are only partially, or nearly completed, are neat.  You can walk around between them and the quarry wall they were being removed from.  You can see the chisel marks on the stones, running diagonally down the side of the stones from right to left.  Apparently the masons were right-handed, holding the chisel with their left hand and swinging the hammer down from the right.  There is one stone that had just been started to be excavated.  You can see the channel that was begun and how it was done.  Two small trenches with a narrow section between them that would be removed as the two on the sides were made deeper.  There are also some rectangular shaped blocks that were apparently to be used as base stones for temples sides and floors.  

Some of the column stones that were removed and were laying on the site show erosion on the bottom sides from the centuries of rain that had run down around the stone and ate away the limestone, leaving a ragged, semi-honeycombed effect.

The quarry walls are about 1700 meters long. This wall may be only the remains.  This whole site may have been excavated to build Selinunte

A rectangular cut stone.  May have been intended for a column base

The walls of the quarry are straight and very square at their corners.  A true sign of human work

Spot where removal of the column stones were incomplete

Cathy next to the incomplete stonework.  You can get an idea of the scale of the work

Note how the chisel marks rotate down and to the left.

Try to imagine how much effort was required to create the space needed to work the stone

View from above the partially completed stonework

Here's a column stone that was just started. You can see how they worked their way down around the intended column

Almost completed stones are everywhere

Another section of the quarry

This stone was ready for transport.  The square hole would have been used for a timber used to help move it.

Another rectangular stone.  This is about the size of the ones used for a temple's base course.

The rectangular notches may have been used for leverage or a davit to pick up cut stones.

The bottom of the stone on the right shows how the limestone has been eroded by the rain.  With as little as it rains here this took a LONG time.  

Cave di Cusa

What's really amazing about this place is that all this work was done with very primitive tools.  Stone, wood, and maybe copper, tools.  And the size of the place is astounding.  Many acres all worked entirely by hand. Talk about dedication. This whole area is flat with very few hills, compared to the rest of the island's topography so this area had to be dug out once the stone outcropping was discovered.  You can see for kilometers in most directions around here.  The other wonder is how they got these massive stones 11 kilometers, 5 to 6 miles, from here to the Selinunte site, which is on top of a hill.  If you do go to Selinunte you need to come here too.  It really helps you understand the scale of the endeavor required to build the city and it's temples.

OK, that's enough for today.  Two posts and several hours later I'm giving it up for the night.  I expect it'll be a couple more days before we travel some more and I post again.