Tindari

Tindari is located on a promontory of the Nebrodi mountains in northern Sicily, in the province of Messina. It overlooks the Gulf of Patti and enjoys a breathtaking view.

It has a glorious past: it was founded by Dionysius of Syracuse as a colony of Syracusan mercenaries and took its name from Tyndaris, in honor of the mythical king of Sparta.

Absolutely worth seeing is the Sanctuary, located in a highly suggestive place, at the height of an overhanging promontory.

Formerly here stood the acropolis of the city. Today, the symbol of the sanctuary is the statue of the Black Madonna, all in cedar wood, probably arrived in Tindari following the explosion of the iconoclasm.

A typical example of African and Oriental art, the Madonna is depicted as the “Queen on the throne” and holds Baby Jesus in her arms. And in the base of the statue a quote from the Song of Songs “Nigra sum sed formosa”, I am brunette, but beautiful.

The archaeological area of ​​Tindari contains the remains of the ancient city built in sandstone. Mosaics, sculptures, as well as objects and ceramics preserved in part at the local museum and partly at the museum of Palermo. The ancient monument, symbol of the city is certainly the Greek theater of Tindari.

It dates back to the 4th century BC and was built by the Greeks, although later on the Romans remodeled the structure to transform it into an amphitheater for the games of gladiators. The theater of Tindari was built taking advantage of the shape of the hill and was able to contain 3 thousand spectators. When the Romans intervened, they built a brick portico and adapted the orchestra for games. Of the ancient wings there remain only an arch and part of the backdrop, restored in the last century.

Since the fifties of the twentieth century there is an artistic festival, since 2001 is the Festival of the two seas.

To visit also the ancient city of Tindari where we can see:

 – The Basilica, a two-storey structure with a barrel vaulted passage;

 – Roman blockade between the decumani and some secondary roads;

 – Buildings built on different levels of the land;

–  The tabernae and the old shops, some with a back room;

–  The domus of the first century BC, with peristyle and stone columns with the Doric capitals and the tablinium (the ancient hall) and furnished with mosaics (white and polychrome mosaics).

But nature also gives emotions to Tindari. Under the promontory there is in fact a tongue of sand that encloses several stretches of water.

The arrangement of the sand changes according to the action of the storms and continually alters the appearance of the beach, known as the beach of Marinello, on which ancient legends have been circulating for centuries.

On the beach there is also a cave that, according to an ancient legend, is populated by a sorceress who adored the sailors with their song and then eat them. The holes on the walls, are the thrusts of the sorceress’s fingers, infuriated when the sailors managed to escape.