San Pantaleo, Italy

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the island (Times: 9am-1pm; 3-6pm).

Location

Mózia, the ancient Motya, lies on the small circular island of San Pantaleo, directly off the west coast of Sicily, north of Marsala. The island is privately owned by a family who have undertaken the excavation of the ancient town, which was a fortified Carthaginian settlement.

History

The position of this island, which is a mere 600 x 700m/650 x 750ft in size, in the middle of a lagoon, protected from the open sea by the elongated island of Isola Grande, was the precondition which made it possible for a Phoenician settlement to exist here as long ago as the eighth century B.C. It was of use to the great Phoenician/Punic power, Carthage, when it had to retreat in the face of the Greek colonizing forces, and for centuries was one of its bases in western Sicily, together with Palermo and Solunto.

In 397 B.C. Motya was conquered by Dionysios I of Syracuse; in 396 it was retaken by the Carthaginians, but then voluntarily surrendered, its role being taken by the powerful maritime fortifications of Lilybaion/Lilybaeum (today, Marsala). The remainder of Motya's inhabitants then moved there. After that the settlement was no longer developed systematically, but individual houses from later periods, such as the Casa dei Mosaici, were added. Today the island, which since the Middle Ages has taken its name from Saint Pantaleo, is used for agricultural purposes, including vine-growing.