Discover Erice Sicily, the beautiful fairytale town.... complete with castles and plenty of romance...The medieval city of Erice Sicily sits on a hill high above the Trapani coast, about 2,400 feet above sea level. It can be reached by funicular from Trapani or you can take one of two roads that wind up the side of the mountain.
Erice Sicily has a mythological background - Eryx, the son of Aphrodite and Poseidon was the founder of the town, and was once the seat of the cult of the fertility goddess Venus Erycina. Erice has even been called many other things - Eryx, Gebel-Hamed by the Arabs, Monte San Giuliano under the Normans, and only recently (1934) called Erice by Mussolini.
Though the town is not tiny (28,000 people), stepping inside the walled portion of the city feels a bit like stepping back in time. Narrow streets, cobblestones and touristic paths wind through the city, making for an enchanting Sicily vacation. The oldest structure in the town is the protective thick boundary wall which dates back to Punic times. Since then, the town has been home to the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Greeks and the Romans, the Arabs, and the Normans - here myth and history intermingle in the varied architecture that greets you with every turn. Although the village is small in size, between the 12th and 17th Centuries more that 60 churches were built in and around Erice Sicily. There are many of these churches still standing in the town, some now converted to other uses, some lying seemingly idle and decaying. The cathedral, constructed in the 14th Century, has a magnificent front portal and a separate Gothic style bell tower which stands a few metres from the entrance. This building also doubles as a concert hall for the town's annual traditional popular music festival.
When arriving in Erice Sicily and coming from the south (here you can also park your car), the first thing you see is the Porta Trapani, one of three Norman town-gates. From here you can walk straight to the Chiesa Matrice which is on the Western side of the town and only a few meters away from the Porta Trapani. Here in the entrance you can see a sign of the tour leading through Erice. The Chiesa Matrice certainly is the most important building of the town; it was built up in 1314. From here you can now start the little round tour. You will see the Castello Pépoli and the Castello die Venere on the other side of the town. Its location at a steep slope is rather breath-catching and those former constructions for defense are really interesting. Where now the Castello di Venere is situated, there was the temple of Venus in former times which gave its name to the castle later on. Further sights are the Chiesa San Giovanni Battista, the Chiesa del Carmine and the Museo Comunale, which shows exhibition objects from the Young stone age as well as from the Punian, Greek and Roman times. Furthermore you have a fantastic view far over the country and the sea when you are on the way from the Piazza San Giovanni up to Castle on the Eastside of the town. Erice is cobbled streets, arched passageways, narrow laneways, cool breezes, stunning views, and lovely sunsets over the Western Mediterranean. It doesn't have the flair of the more modern Sicilian cities, but perhaps that is how it should be.
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