Solunto

Province: Palermo

Municipality: Santa Flavia

Altitude: 217m/712ft.

Communications

SS 113 and A 19 Palermo-Cefalù, turn north near Santa Flavin, after a short distance a winding road on the left leads up to this archeological site.

Location

This site on the north coast of Sicily is well worth a visit. It lies 18km/11mi east of Palermo and 3.5km/2mi northeast of Bagheria on the eastern slopes of Monte Catalfano, which is 374m/1,227ft high with superb views.

History

Solunto (Greek Solous, Latin Soluntum) was, together with Motya and Panormos one of the three places to which the Phoenicians retreated prior to the Greek colonization of western Sicily in the eighth-seventh centuries B.C. In 397-396 B.C. Dionysios I of Syracuse destroyed this Phoenician town which then probably lay on the plain where the town of Cozzuo Cannita now stands; minor remains have been found there. Soon after that, in the middle of the fourth century B.C., Solunto was rebuilt by its inhabitants in its present situation on the mountainside. It expanded rapidly, especially after the Carthaginians defeated the Syracusan tyrant Agathocles and guaranteed his troops safe conduct to Solunto. In 254 B.C., during the First Punic War, the town was on the side of the Romans. It remained in existence until c. A.D. 200 - the latest evidence is provided by a votive inscription to the wife of Emperor Antoninus Pius (A.D.138-161) and coins from the time of Commodus (A.D. 180-192); it was then deserted by its inhabitants. Archeological digs have been taking place since the 19th century.