Building for the Gods

The exhibition rebuilds the construction sites set up to build the great Doric temples that to this day, still stand in the Valley of Temples in Agrigento. Starting from Diodoro Siculo’s description of the complex of the Olympieion, the exhibition retraces ancient sources to relive the construction of the ancient Akragas, the “most beautiful city of mortals”. Curated by Alessandro Carlino, an architectural historian who has been studying the Sicilian Doric temples for years, the exhibition is the brainchild of Giuseppe Parello, director for the Archaeological Parks and UNESCO Sites Management of the Sicilian Region. The exhibition thus conceived makes the public discover the techniques that were used to build the Temples, including the machines employed to move huge blocks of stone, the amount of workers that were involved and how long construction lasted. The exhibition path includes photographs of the Temples by Francesco Ferla and illustrations of the Construction site in the Ancient World by Simone Boni.