Ancient origins of Agira
Agira, together with Erice, is the Sicilian city that has had more living continuity on the same place from prehistoric times to today.
The origins of Agira are very ancient and from the study of some prehistoric finds it was possible to document that initially the city was populated, about 30,000 years ago, when the island was still united to the Italian peninsula. In the Agira area there are traces of human settlements of the Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. In the second millennium BC, it was inhabited by the Sicans: in some caves of Agira some human bones referable to this period have been found.
Until the rise of Syracuse and Agrigento, it was certainly among the major cities of Sicily. In the fourth century. B.C. it has its own mint, was allied with Syracuse against the Carthaginians and was conquered by the Romans. The historian Diodorus Siculus of the first century. BC, who was born in Agira, writes that in Agira there were a theater, second only to that of Syracuse, magnificent temples and a large agora, while Cicero in the "Verrine" mentions it as one of the rich Sicilian cities plundered by the governor Verre.
Starting from the Byzantine period the events of Agira are identified with San Filippo, the Basilian monk sent to convert the inhabitants, founder of a monastery, who will become the protector of the city.
The dominations that followed one another on the island, from the Arabs to the Normans, from the Swabians to the Angevins, from the Aragonese to the Bourbons, they also left their traces in Agira. Important examples are the typical Arab alleys and courtyards found in the “Le rocche” district, the ruins of the Norman castle and the stone Aron, of great historical and artistic value, of the destroyed Synagogue, preserved in the Church of SS. Savior.
