According to legend, Erice, son of Venus and Neptune,
founded a small town on top of a mountain (750 meters above sea
level) more than three hundred thousand years ago. The great Thucydides
(~500 B.C.) -- the founder of modern history (that is, of the recording
of events in a methodic and chronological sequence as they really
happened without reference to mythical causes) -- writing about events
connected with the conquest of Troy (1183 B.C.), says: "After the fall
of Troy some Trojans on their escape from the Achaei arrived in Sicily
on boats and as they settled near the border with the Sicanians all
together they were named Elymi: their towns were Segesta and Erice."
Segesta
This
inspired Virgil to describe the arrival of the Trojan royal family in Erice, and the burial of Anchise
by his son Enea on the coast below Erice.
Homer (~1000 B.C.), Theocritus (~300 B.C.),
Polybius (200 B.C.), Virgil (~50 B.C.),
Horace (~20 B.C.), and others have celebrated this magnificent spot in Sicily in their
poems. For seven centuries (XIII-XIX) the town of Erice
was under the leadership of a local oligarchy, whose wisdom assured a
long period of cultural development and economic prosperity which in
turn gave rise to the many churches, monasteries and private palaces
which you see today.
Punic warships
In
Erice you can admire the Castle
of Venus, the
Cyclopean Walls (~800 B.C.) and the Gothic Cathedral (~1300 A.D.). Erice
at present is a mixture of ancient and medieval architecture. Other
masterpieces of ancient civilization are to be found in the
neighborhood: at Motya (Phoenician), Segesta
(Elymian), and Selinunte (Greek). On the AegadianIslands,
the theatre of the decisive naval battle of the first Punic War (264-241
B.C.), suggestive neolithic and Paleolithic vestiges are still visible:
the grottoes of Favignana, the carvings and murals of Levanzo.
Paleolithic murals
Splendid beaches are to be found at San Vito Lo
Capo, Scopello, and Cormino, and a wild and rocky coast around Monte
Cofano: all at less than one hour’s drive from Erice. A slightly longer drive takes you to Palermo, where you can
admire the splendid architecture of the Norman and Swabian emperors.