Tour of tindari and santo stefano di camastra
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Today it's time to explore some real Sicilian towns with a Greek mythology touch!!!
Upon arrival you will visit the sanctuary, a relatively recent addition to the landscape, shelters a Byzantine black Virgin which attracts large band of
pilgrims notably around the Marian feasts of the visitation (31 May) and the birth of the Virgin (8 September).
After you can visit the archaeological site: the theatre built by the Greeks late 4c bc, a small antiquarium, and the arcaded remains of the basilica
give some suggestion of the scale and elegance of the original building.
In the afternoon we continue to Santo Stefano di Camastra famous for the best ceramics in Sicily free time for shopping and back to the hotel.
History
Tyndaris was founded in 396 BC by Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse, in an area inhabited since prehistoric times.
An ally of the Romans during the Punic Wars, it prospered in the Imperial Age.
According to Pliny part of the town collapsed into the sea, in the first c. BC, after a landslide, signs of which can still be seen from the
Christian Sanctuary on the N side of the promontory.
Having become a diocese in the early years of Christianity, it was destroyed by the Arabs in 836.
The present town dates from 1094, when Roger I founded a Benedictine abbey here.
During the War of the Sicilian Vespers, it was bumed down by Frederick II of Aragon for remaining faithful to the Angevins;
it was rebuilt but again sacked and bumed by the pirate Barbarossa.
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