Sanctuary of Asclepius

Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine called Esculapium by the Romans, was venerated in Akragas in a large sacred area (mid-4th to 2nd centuries B.C.), which included many buildings for the cult and for therapeutic rituals. These rituals also took place at other sanctuaries devoted to Asclepius throughout the Mediterranean, where the devotees were mainly sick people.

According to a hypothetical reconstruction, the pilgrims would leave their carts and buy votive offerings in the buildings to the northeast of the sanctuary. They would then start the ritual and therapeutic procession with rites of purification near the fountain. The procession then continued by placing the votive offerings into wells and in the small temple (sacellum). This building consisted of two rooms: a porch (pronaos) and a cella with a central cabinet (thesaurus). The pilgrims would then visit the other buildings.

The temple is in Doric style and was divided into two rooms: a porch with two columns at the front and a rectangular cella, the back wall of which is characterized on its outer side by two grooved half-columns. On either side of the entrance to the cella, there were stairs leading up to the roof, decorated by lion-head-shaped gutters. In the porticoed buildings, on the western and northern side of the sanctuary, there were rooms for short stays and for treatment. In the northwestern portico there was a room called abaton, where the incubation ritual took place. This ritual consisted in sleeping in the abaton so that during a dream the vision of the god would either suggest a possible cure or miraculously cure the devotee. The presence of a large cistern and of an enclosure with an altar, opposite to the portico, suggests that other rituals were also performed here. It has been hypothesized, on the basis of pollen remains recovered during archaeological excavations, that trees were present between the buildings in the sanctuary. For this reason oak and olive trees have been planted between the ruins by the Park Authority.

Amongst the archaeological finds from the sanctuary are votive figurines portraying anatomical parts that devotees prayed Asclepius to cure or that had been 'cured' by the god. Many restorations have taken place since 1926, when thanks to the joint initiative of captain Alexander Hardcastle and Pirro Marconi, a country house built on the temple was demolished. The last interventions, under the aegis of the Park Authority with funding from the European Union (POR Sicilia 2000-2006), have been aimed at securing the static stability of the building and at conserving its stone blocks.

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Testo di: Valentina Calì
admin by Tommaso Guagliardo