Archaeological Museum “Pietro Griffo”

The Archaeological Museum is located on the hill of St. Nicholas: a nice ridge with the majestic view over the temples and the sea. This was the place where the upper agorà of Akragas was located. In the 12^th century a Cistercian Monastery was built here and its cloister and some rooms have been incorporated into the modern Museum, thus creating a well-balanced complex composed of modern and antique structures. The museum contains more than 5000 exhibits displayed according to scientific criteria which guide the visitor chronologically in the discovery of Agrigento from prehistory to the end of the Graeco-Roman era. The Museum has 18 rooms organized in 2 sections: the first section is dedicated to the remains of Agrigento (rooms 1-11) and the second is dedicated to the archaeological finds of the surrounding territories (rooms 12-18).

The most outstanding exhibits are undoubtedly the collection of vases with decorations depicting epic and mythological scenes, the giant Telamon placed in the room dedicated to Zeus, Greek and Roman sarcophagi embellished with splendid bas-relief details, the Ephebos of Agrigento and fine floor mosaics of Roman dwellings (domus). Recently the museum’s garden has been embellished with superb bronze sculptures by G.Wyatt and dedicated to the philosopher of Agrigento, Empedocle. Empedocle was not only a philosopher but also the politician who introduced democracy to Akragas during the last decades of the 5^th century BC. The museum is surrounded by the archaeological remains of the political centre of Akragas: to the South, the cavea of the Ekklesiasterion, and to the North the Boulèuterion.

Legislative proposals were formulated by the ‘Boulé’ which were then discussed and voted by the general assembly of the citizens (‘Ekklesia’). The cavea of the Ekklesiasterion is ‘invaded’ by a small Roman temple built on the site in the 1^st century BC, incorrectly called “Oratory of Phalaris” (the tiny temple was possibly used as an oratory in the Middle Ages by the monks of the nearby Church of St. Nicholas). During the Imperial age the entire area was generally re-organized: nearby the Boulèuterion was built a large Roman temple with an ample podium and a portico running around three sides. Recently statues of Roman magistrates in toga, which are now exhibited along via sacra, were found here. The presence of this temple and the noble dwellings of the nearby Roman-Hellenistic quarter demonstrate the importance of this area during the Roman age: this was the urban centre of the Roman Agrigentum.