NH Dioscuri Bay Palace

Location

Lungomare Falcone e Borsellino 1, Agrigento, 92100

Agrigento is one of Sicily's provincial capitals, located on the southern coast of the island,facing towards Africa.It keeps unspoilt the grace and fascination of a Mediterranean resort, a crossroads of different cultures:local,mainland Italian, Greek and North African. Founded in 581 BC by colonists from neighboring Gela who named it Akragas,it rapidly grew in economic,civil and military importance, so much so that in league with Syracuse it vanquished the Carthaginian army at Imera in 480 Bc and scaled down its expansionistic ambitions. From this era date the most imposing and important architectural remains, which put the city on the same artistic level as the most important Greek cities. The city is divided into two areas: the modern urban center and the "Valley of the Temples", the ancient sacred territory which today has become a focus of Historical and architectural interest.Of course the most spectacular surviving trace of ancient Akragas is the temple of Concordia which stands out imposingly in an amazing state of preservation; " In comparison with the temples of Paetum, it stands like the figure of a God before that of a giant", noted Goethe during his journey of 1787. The temple of Juno, Hercules and Dioscuri date from the same period. The modern part of Agrigento too preserves glories and remains of the past in a curious mixture of Arabic, Roman and Baroque architecture:St.Calogero's church; the Cathedral; the Abbey of the Holy Spirits and so on.