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Piazza Armerina 304 pictures Situated inland, Piazza Armerina is one of Sicily's most important tourist resorts. It lies along a ridge of the Erei mountains, in a setting of great natural beauty and near an area of great archaeological interest, because one of the finest Roman villas that have come down to us still stands there. According to some sources it already existed before the Roman colonization when it was known as Hibla. In the Middle Ages it suffered various vicissitudes, including being destroyed in the second half of the twelfth century by William the Bad. Later, Piazza Armerina competed for a long time with Enna to become the Bishop's See, succeeding in this only in the first half of the nineteenth century. The Palio dei Normanni, which is held is August, is the most important of the folk festivities of the town. The powerful outline of the Duomo is the first sight we have of the town on approaching. A building with Baroque characteristics, it goes back to the seventeenth century and was built over a previous fifteenth century church. The facade overlooks a flight of steps and has sixteenth century Mannerist features and a strange portal adorned with spiral tufa columns in Renaissance taste. The attached bell tower has Catalan-Gothic traits and belonged to the old fifteenth century building, The magnificent Baroque interior is crowned by a spectacular dome, on the high altar is a precious silver tabernacle with a splendid Byzantine painting of the Holy Virgin of Victory, while on the side walls are sixteenth century paintings by Zoppo di Gangi. An admirable arch attributed to A. Gagini to the right of the entrance contains the baptismal font. In the chapel on the left is a fine wooden Crucifix attributed to the Maestro della Croce di Piazza Armerina (fifteenth century), together with a fifteenth century Madonna and Child, of Umbrian origin. Paintings in the church include works by F. Paladino, G. Martorana and J. Ligozzi. The Buildings Mosaics Back to Sicily Index