What to see in Marsala, itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including the historic center, the Duomo, Palazzo Pretorio, the San Giovanni church and the Punic ship museum.
Tourist information
Located in the province of Trapani and a coastal town on the Capo Boeo in the Sicilian channel, Marsala is the main wine production center in Sicily.
It was the Carthaginians, who fled the destroyed Mozia in 397, to found the city of Lilybaeum, placing it in the place that had been inhabited by the Sicani in the Eneolithic.
Joined in the Roman domains following the battle of the Egadi, held in 241 BC, Marsala played an important role during the Middle Ages at the time of Arab domination.
Another event that made the city famous was the landing of the Thousand led by Garibaldi, which took place on 11 May 1860.
The historic center has preserved the medieval road network, well inserted on the original Punic plan characterized by an axial plan.
The Duomo, built between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on top of a previous Norman building, has an imposing eighteenth-century facade never completed.
Within three naves it is possible to admire the Presentation of Jesus, painted by Riccio in 1593, and sculptures by Gagini made in the sixteenth century.
In the small museum on the back there are remarkable 16th century tapestries.
What see
Not far away are the praetorian palace, also called loggia, the monastery of San Pietro, while at Villa Nuova stands Villa Cavallotti.
The church of San Giovanni is located in an isolated position at the western end of the inhabited center, above the Grotta della Sibilla Lilibetana, which was probably a baptistery in the early Christian era.
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In it there are remarkable mosaic ornaments from the Roman era.
In the lilibeo national museum, housed in the Baglio Anselmi, which was an ancient wine factory, it is possible to admire the interesting statue of a man found in Mozia dating back to 480 BC.
The museum itself also contains prehistoric artifacts, funerary outfits from the seventh century BC, a section dedicated to Mozia, Roman artifacts and medieval ceramics.
There is also a section dedicated to underwater archeology, which includes the remains of a Punic warship, dating back to the third century BC. and found in the waters of the Stagnone.
Some important modern paintings are kept in the former Jesuit college.
The remains of a large third-century house have been unearthed in the part of the Roman city facing the sea.
