Erice and its amazing Venus Castle

Erice and Venus Castle

Erice is a lovely medioeval town on top of the mount very close to Trapani. It has a castle, called Venus Castle, and a cathedral, called Matrice.

Erice is a world apart, so different from Trapani in architecture and also in the climate. We are at 751 meters high. In winter it does not seem Sicily. Cold, fog, wind, nobody around, but you cant’t easily forget the charming lamps wrapped in mist, the narrow roads that suddenly pop out, the paved streets, the lovely courtyards, the majesty of the castle and the romantic Balio.

Anyway the best time to visit Erice is still spring or summer when you can admire landscapes in all their beauty.

Roads to Erice and its castle

To go up to Mount St Julian’s peak there are a few roads. One starts from the cableway station while the other one goes up from Valderice. One more is great fun for mountain-biking and climbing lovers and goes up from the old cemetery. There are also walking paths.

Cableway to Erice

But this time I’ll choose the exciting experience of the cableway. Here you can bring a bike on board, if you want. Ten minutes of outstanding views in a cabin suspended in the air where the silence is the king.

cableway to Erice

Erice Boundary Walls

Erice ancient walls

The ancient Elimo-Phoenician (from eighth century to the sixth century BC.) built the high boundary walls, surrounding Erice.

Apart the Venus Castle, Normans built three gates in the walls, Porta spada, Porta del Carmine and Porta Trapani, together with high towers.

The best visible and also the best preserved section of the ancient walls is along the road “dell’Addolorata” (a church), from Porta Carmine to Porta Spada. Walls consisted of large blocks, which followed the mountain, and made the acropolis impregnable.

The walls had watch towers and also a walkway, which allowed transit of people and supplies. Soldiers entered the walls through steep stairs and small openings to defend the town.

The origins of Erice

According to legends, Aeneas founded Erice. In the XII century BC, flleeing from their city after its destruction, Trojans came to settle in the lands inhabitated by Sicans. They mixed with Sicans and later with Elymnians, other primitive inhabitants of Sicily.

Or maybe the same Erice, king of Elymnians, was the founder of the town. Historians have not still understood origin of Elymnians but we know this population settled in Erice and Segesta.

Another legend refers to mythical Eryx, the incredible power giant, son of Aphrodite and Bute.The invincible Heracles killed him. Eryx himself built a temple dedicated to his mother.

The ancient temple to the goddess of fertility

Castle of VenusIn the ancient time, on Mount Erice, Sicans had already built a temple dedicated to a goddess of fertility. It was on a cylindrical rock whose slopes were steep and inaccessible. The temple consisted of a small altar open to the sky inside the sacred enclosure.

Mount Erice was a landmark for sailors, because there was a fire as a guide for those arriving from the sea. The fire was inside the sacred area.The highest peak of Erice was the first Sicilian land that sailors would sight after crossing the Channel of Sicily.

Elymnians, Phoenicians and Carthaginians increaded the fame of this shrine which became famous in the Mediterranean area. Then Punics introduced their custom and rites such as sacred prostitution and the feasts of doves. They identified their goddess Astarte with Venus Erycina.

Sexual rites consacred to gods

The jerodulai, priestesses who practiced the art of so-called sacred prostitution, (but that name was given in later times) lived in the temple. They had intercourses with the pilgrims who daily would go up on top of Erice to honor the Goddess.
In the ancient times sexual rites were conducted as ierogamía o ierodulía.

Ierodulía

In ierodulía priestesses sacred to the gods were offered to visitors of the temple, to pay homage to gods. However offering money to the temple was not a reward for their service. The jerodule often had a high social status and were revered for their education. Some even became queens.

Hierogamy, A way to enter into a relationship with gods

In Hierogamy, sex was considered a true liturgy, a mystic sacramental act that symbolized the union between two deities. It allowed both partners to transcend their common senses to enter into a new spiritual dimension. Unthinkable for the contemporary Western world, the body of the priestess became literally and metaphorically a way to enter into a relationship with gods.

Feasts of Doves

Coves were also symbol of fertility and were sacred to Venus Erycina. Large flocks of doves flew around the shrine all the year round. During the month of August they also celebrated the feasts for departure of doves sacred to the goddess towards Libya according to the credence. This was the beginning of the Anagogic celebration  A red dove was ahead the others during the journey. After nine days they celebrated their return (katagogic) in a magic atmosphere.

The treasure of the shrine

At the beginning the mountain became the destination of pilgrimages of Phoenicians and Carthaginian sailors and later also of Greek and Roman ones. Greeks dedicated the temple to Aphodite and enriched it so the worship of the goddess spread in the whole Mediterranean.

Its fame was due both to the strategic position of the mount and the treasure of the shrine, with the gifts offered to the goddess. Its property grew richer and richer owing to the donations of faithfuls, offering of any kind such as vases or statues. So it was a real treasure.

Cerimonies in honour of the goddess, celebrated by some virgins consacrated to her, grew more and more important and drew large crowds of every race and language to the temple.

Since the ancient time the whole outline of the rock had been surrounded by an ashlar wall. At the present day only a short stretch of this very ancient wall is left. It is in the western fissure of the rock called “Daedalus’s bridge”.

The temple at Roman time

After Rome defeated Carthage, Romans protected the shrine of the goddess. The worship of Venus Erycina was introduced even in the city of Rome. Consul Marcellus ordered the throne and the statue of the goddess be moved from Erice to Rome. In Rome they dedicated two temples to the Venus Erycina. Later a garrison of 200 soldiers called “soldiers of Venus” stationed in Erice to guard over the shrine and its treasure.

Actually Romans thought there was a relationship between the people of Erice and the Romans because Erix was son of Venus as was Aeneas, the progenitor of latin stock.  At that time the cult and the treasure of Venus Erycina reached their greatest splendour.

Around 25 AD the temple collapsed because of its old age. Segestans asked Romans to restore it but only later Claudius took care of the shrine. After this evidence we have no more news about the temple.

Judeo-Christian religion denied the spiritual aspect of sacred prostitution, relegating it to being merely mercenary. Therefore  Christian Religion expelled Venus from his seat and in the same place was built the Temple of Virgin Mary.

There is no evidence of the town until the time of  Arabs, when it reappeared with the name of Gebel-Hamed.

The castle built by Normans

Normans called the village Mount St. Julian (name which remained until 1934), in honor of the saint who Earl Roger had seen in a dream during the siege of the fortress. Under Normans the city became rich, populous and  developed the urban center as it has come up to us. On the ruins of the ancient temple,  Normans built a castle, Venus Castle,  surrounded by mighty walls fringed with battlements.

Venus Castle

This is commonly called the Castle of Venere Ericina, or Castle of Venus, protected also by the Balio Towers. Once a drawbridge connected the towers to the castle. There are machicolations above the main entrance, enriched by the arms of Charles V of Spain and a beautiful two-light window. All of them show the defensive nature of the castle

Balio towers

The castle today

Today, only some ruins, scattered here and there, remains of the Roman temple dedicated to Venus. Some years ago they found a well in the courtyard of the castle. They hoped it could belong to the ancient temple, but it certainly belongs to the medieval castle.

The area around the Castle of Venus underwent further changes. Such as the construction of the ramp (in the sixteenth century) that replaced the old drawbridge.

It bridged the moat that divided the lower fortified part (known by the name of the castle “Baglio”) from the nucleus on the rock.

Medieval Towers

The medieval Towers constituted an outpost of the Castle of Venus. The view overlooking oaks woods, the north coast, Mount Cofano and the Bay of Cornino is really great.

Earl Agostino Pepoli, at the end of the last century, partially reconstructed the medieval towers. He also built the small tower Torretta Pepoli. This is a small house, featuring a Moorish-style little tower that the Earl Pepoli built to spend his days resting and studying.

Torretta Pepoli

Erice Balio Gardens

All around lie the Balio gardens, magnificent for their terrace arrangement and the beauty of their plants.

The name of the towers and garden probably derived from the Norman governor (baiulo) who had his residence there.

The view from up is great.

To the north, the Bay of Cornino and Mount Cofano, and behind it  the tip of Cape San Vito stretches. To the south you can see the islands Egadi, Trapani in all its extension, the salt pans till Marsala. It is truly magnificent.

The centre of the town

Through paved streets I’m walking towards the town centre. Here  the gracious courtyards full of flowers hit me. Streets are full of ceramics and carpets, crafts shops, souvenirs, food, wine and desserts shops. So you can’t come to Erice without tasting the “Genoese with cream” and Mustaccioli. Until a few years ago these popular cakes and biscuits were the specialities of nuns.

The Cordici Museum

Piazza Umberto I is the main square. The Municipal Building houses the Municipal Library, containing manuscripts and some incunabula. Close to the square there is a Museum. Cordici Museum houses inside an important collection of archaeological finds from the necropolis of Erice. It also keeps a small marble head of Aphrodite, a copy of the original greek. Particularly beautiful is the sculptural group of the Annunciation by Antonello Gagini (1525).

source:

http://trapaniedintorni.altervista.org