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.
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.
The Buleuterion in Solunto is a small building with semi-circular steps where the town council sat. There is also a theater built into the side of the hill from which there is a particularly fine view of the town and the surrounding countryside; both buildings date from the fourth century B.C. but were renovated in Roman times.
Margot Klee has pointed out that, in addition to the Phoenician altar on the agora, in one building a seated figure was found which is almost certainly the goddess Astarte, and that in the necropolis at the foot of Monte Catalfano a large number of Phoenician graves were found and from this she deduces that "Solunto is so far the only place in Sicily in which a mixture of Greek and Phoenician cultures has been established. It appears that daily life, religion and death were all more strongly influenced by Phoenician factors and concepts than was previously thought".
The coast road leads north from Solunto, first to the fishing villages of Porticello, with its fish market held every morning, and Sant'Elia, and then on to Cape Zafferano (226m/741ft above sea-level) and to the steep rocky walls of Cape Mongerbino and the fishing village of Aspra, with its bathing beach.
By following the main road the first building to be seen on the left is the Ginnasio. In spite of its name (literally "grammar school") it is not a public building but a very lavish Greco-Roman dwelling with atrium and peristyle; six of the columns belonging to the latter have been re-erected. There are other houses worth seeing, including the "House of Leda" with beautiful mosaic floors.
Santa Flavia is a fishing port and holiday resort in a very beautiful bay 2km/1.25mi southeast of Solunto. On Cape Solanto, to its south, stands a castle built in the time of the Norman King Roger II; today it used for the processing of fish brought ashore at the jetty.
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