Although the town itself has some interesting medieval buildings, the main tourist interest here is Valle dei Tempi, one of the most important archaeological sites of ancient civilization.
Temple of Hera
Here in the valley below the temples area there are remains of the first Greek colony founded as Akragas in 581 BC.
When the Romans came, they rename the settlement to Agrigentum taking care of the temples served later as churches of the Christian religion.
The Carthaginan invasion destoyed the town at the end of 5th century. Following centuries brought the rules of Byzantine Empire, Arabs and finally Normans at the beginning of 11th century. The barbarian rides caused the topwn to remove to more safer location on the rock, where you can find the present Agrigento.
Among the buildings worth mention there are the Cathedral from 12th century, 13th century Convento di Santo Spirtito and Museo Archeologico Regionale with the display of items recovered from several excavations in the area around.
The time, the wind and volcanic activity destroyed most of the impressive buildings in Valle dei Tempi. Ironicaly, the best preserved is the temple later served as a church ,the Temple of Concord with 34 Doric columns, one of the best preserved temples of Hellenistic world.
The other buildings had less luck. The symbol of the valley, the temple of Dioscuri sacrified to Kastor and Pollux features only four columns and a piece of capitol atop. The basement only left from Zeus temple and from Demeter shrine. Several columns are left form Hera temple and Temple of Heracles.
There are two other temples dedicated to Asclepios, Hephaistos and several other buildings including Villa Igea with early Christian catacombs.
There is another archaeological museum with items from the fist Greek settlement.
The green area around known as Giardino della Kolymbetra with the temples on the hill consist the Archaeological Park nominated for World Heritage List by UNESCO.
[ photo courtesy of Andras Jancsik]
