Lentini

Lentini is a town in the south-east of Sicily, part of the province of Syracuse (Italy).

History

The ancient Leontini was founded Chalcidians from Naxos in 729 BC.

It is almost the only Greek settlement not on the coast, from which it is 6 miles distant. The site, originally held by the Sicels, was seized by the Greeks owing to its command of the fertile plain on the north. It was reduced to subjection in 498 BC by Hippocrates of Gela, and in 476 BC Hieron of Syracuse established here the inhabitants of Catana and Naxos.

Later on Leontini regained its independence, but in its efforts to retain it, the intervention of Athens was more than once invoked. It was mainly the eloquence of Gorgias of Leontini which led to the abortive Athenian expedition of 427 BC.

In 422 BC Syracuse supported the oligarchs against the people and received them as citizens, Leontini itself being forsaken. This led to renewed Athenian intervention, at first mainly diplomatic; but the exiles of Leontini joined the envoys of Segesta, in persuading Athens to undertake the great Sicilian Expedition of 415 BC.

After its failure, Leontini became subject to Syracuse once more (see Strabo vi. 272). Its independence was guaranteed by the treaty of 405 BC between Dionysius and the Carthaginians, but it very soon lost it again. It was finally stormed by Marcus Claudius Marcellus in 214 BC.

In Roman times it seems to have been of small importance. It was destroyed by the Saracens in 848 AD, and almost totally ruined by the earthquake of 1693. The ancient city is described by Polybius (vii. 6) as lying in a bottom between two hills, and facing north. On the western side of this bottom ran a river with a row of houses on its western bank under the hill. At each end was a gate, the northern leading to the plain, the southern, at the upper end, to Syracuse. There was an acropolis on each side of the valley, which lies between precipitous hills with flat tops, over which buildings had extended.

The eastern hill still has considerable remains of a strongly fortified medieval castle, in which some writers arc inclined (though wrongly) to recognize portions of Greek masonry.

Excavations were made in 1899 in one of the ravines in a Sicel necropolis of the third period--explorations in the various Greek cemeteries resulted in the discovery of some fine bronzes, notably a fine bronze lebes, now in the Berlin museum.

Main sights

Lentini's main monuments include:

The Baroque Chiesa Madre Santa Maria la Cava e Sant'Alfio ("Mother church of Santa Maria and Sant'Alfio"), built in 1693 by Vella da Malta. It has a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles; the three-orders façade is from the 18th century. Noteworthy is the central portal with scenes of the martyrdoms of St. Alfio, Filadelphus and Cirinus. The interior houses a Byzantine icon from the 12th century.
The church of the Santissima Trinità and San Marziano. It was built over the 16th century Palazzo La Palumba. It has a noteworthy pavement in ceramics of Caltagirone (18th century), a polyptych of Antonello da Messina's school and the high altar tabernacle in lapislazuli.
Church of the Immacolata (17th century). The interior is home to a Romanesque lion sculpture, a Christ at the Column and the tombstone of Queen Marie (1402).
The Church of St. Luke. It has a notable San Francis Speaking by Jacopo Bassano and other artworks. Next to the church are the remains of the Castle of Frederick II, the hypogeum of St. Lucy with 14th century frescoes, the Crucifix Grottoes with frescoes from the 12th-17th centuries and the ruins of the old parish church of St. Peter (16th century).
The 18th century church of San Francesco di Paola, with a rare organ and artworks from churches destroyed by the 1693 earthquake.

References

Sicilia · Communes of the province of Syracuse

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