The Temple of Segesta is a temple of ancient Greece dating back to the 5th century BC. which stands on a hill with breathtaking views in Calatafimi in Sicily.
Segesta is the most important of the Elymian cities. Its position is extremely suggestive as it lies on a hilly system that takes on various shapes, embellished by the inclusion of its main monuments: the theater and the temple.
The legend says that it was founded by the survivors of the Trojan war led by Aeneas, who, before arriving in Rome, left there a large colony of his fellow citizens, including his old father. Legend aside, the archaeological research still in its infancy has not clearly verified the existence of clear cultural links between this city and the Elymian world in general, and some areas of Asia Minor. The Elimi were, however, an extremely refined people and for this reason subject to the dominant influences of the Sicilian Greek culture, but not in a subordinate position, like all the so-called indigenous peoples of Sicily. The Elymians maintained relations with neighboring civilizations, but always trying to have an autonomy that led them to contrast with the Greeks in alliance with the Punic and with the latter in alliance with Rome.
Segesta soon became a powerful city which therefore had an almost always conflicting relationship with Selinunte, perhaps also due to the respective contradictory geographical positions. It was for this political-military position that he almost always had friendly relations with the Punics. But, very wisely, sensing the nascent Roman power, it passed very quickly to the side of the Romans, in 260 BC. It was thanks to this political move and in the name of the common Trojan origins that the Romans exempted it from paying taxes and also gave it a certain political autonomy and territorial control.
The most significant elements of Segesta are the theater, the temple and the sanctuary of the Mango district. They obviously represent the functions of worship, representations and politics.
Of the other components of the city we know the walls with the articulated Porta di Valle, some residential districts and some monuments relating to medieval Segesta (walls, castle, mosque and top village)
Temple of Segesta - Segesta Archaeological Park
Address: Contrada Barbaro, SR 22, 9101, Segesta
Phone: 0924 952356
Site:
https://www.segestawelcome.com/main/segesta-parco-archeologico/Location inserted by
CHO.earth