Enna - Rocca di Cerere

To the north of the Castello di Lombardia in Enna rises the Rocca di Cerere, on which the famous shrine of Demeter (the goddess of corn, Latin Ceres) was situated, which goes back as far as pre-Greek and Sikel times. Cicero wrote: "So great was the reputation and age of that cult that the people, when they went there, seemed to be directing their steps not to a temple to Ceres, but to Ceres herself." Its symbol of worship, stolen from Verres, was, again according to Cicero, so fine that the people "either believed that they were seeing Ceres herself or an image of Ceres that was not created by mortal hand, but had fallen from heaven". Today no trace of any of this has been preserved.