Pirandello’s House and Tomb
The birthplace and tomb of Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) stands at Caos, a hamlet on the outskirts of Agrigento in southern Sicily. The Nobel laureate — Italy’s most celebrated dramatist and one of the foundational figures of twentieth-century world theatre — was born in this rural house on 28 June 1867, and his ashes rest beneath a pine tree in the garden following his explicit wish to be buried simply, without ceremony, in the landscape of his childhood.
At a glance
- Type
- Birthplace house museum and literary tomb
- Period
- Building: 19th century farmhouse; heritage site: designated 20th century
- Style
- Traditional Sicilian rural architecture
- Location
- Contrada Caos, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy
- Coordinates
- 37.2912° N, 13.5520° E
Overview
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934 “for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art.” His works — including the plays Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) and Henry IV (1922) — are seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd and continue to be performed worldwide. The house at Caos, preserved as a museum by the Comune di Agrigento, allows visitors to see the rooms where Pirandello grew up and to pay respects at his tomb in the garden.
History
Pirandello was born on 28 June 1867 in the family home at Caos during a cholera epidemic that had prompted his mother to leave Agrigento for the countryside. He spent his early years in the house before leaving for study in Palermo, Rome, and Bonn, ultimately settling in Rome as a writer and teacher. After his death in Rome on 10 December 1936, Pirandello left instructions that his body be cremated and his ashes placed in a terracotta urn buried beneath a pine tree in the landscape near Caos. The house was subsequently preserved by civic authorities and opened to the public as a memorial museum.
What you see
The museum preserves period furniture, family portraits, personal photographs, manuscripts, and editions of Pirandello’s works, giving a sense of the bourgeois Sicilian household environment in which the writer formed his imagination. The garden contains the pine tree and the simple stone beneath which his ashes are interred — a deliberately modest monument that contrasts with the grandeur of literary monuments elsewhere in Italy. The surrounding landscape of the Agrigento hinterland, overlooking the distant sea, evokes the sensory world that pervades Pirandello’s Sicilian narratives.
Cultural significance
Pirandello’s birthplace is one of the most significant literary heritage sites in southern Italy, drawing scholars, theatre practitioners, and culturally curious travellers from across the world. His status as a Nobel laureate and the global reach of his theatrical work — performed from Broadway to Tokyo — gives the site an international relevance rare among Italian house museums. The tomb’s austerity embodies the philosophical themes of identity, performance, and the fragility of the self that run through all of Pirandello’s writing.
Practical information
- Address
- Contrada Caos, Via Pirandello, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy
- Opening hours
- Typically open Tuesday–Sunday; check official website for current hours and seasonal variations
- Admission
- Small admission fee; check official website
Getting there
The Caos locality is approximately 5 km west of central Agrigento, between the city and the Valley of the Temples. Local buses from Agrigento city centre serve the area; visitors combining a visit to the house museum with the Valley of the Temples can manage both by bus or on foot along the coastal path. By car, follow signs for Caos from the SS115 road west of Agrigento. Agrigento Centrale railway station provides regional connections from Palermo and Catania.