Segesta Archaeological Park: Church of San Leone
Place belonging to the multi-serial site: Segesta
No longer used at the end of the XNUMXth century, it fell into disrepair at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. Recent excavations have revealed that the chapel was built on the ruins of a previous church of greater dimensions, whose basilica plan with three naves ending in apses finds comparisons with other churches of the Norman and Norman - Swabian period, datable to the end of the XNUMXth - beginning of the XNUMXth century. This church belonged to the medieval town which is now attested in the whole area of ancient Segesta and which had its stronghold in the castle located on the top of Monte Barbaro (behind the theater and the church). Outside the church there is a cemetery of simple graves dug into the ground, lined and covered with stone slabs. The cemetery overlaps, at least in part, with a series of rooms (probably houses) from an earlier phase, dating back to the XNUMXth century. and correlated by construction techniques to the Muslim-type constructions found on the top of the Castle and to the north of the agora. In turn, the medieval structure is superimposed on the remains of the ancient city, which must have constituted an exhaustive construction quarry. It is possible to recognize some rooms of a building from the Hellenistic period (late XNUMXnd - early XNUMXst century BC) of which neither the destination nor the complete plan is known: the building was originally paved with mosaics which were also reused as the floor of the two rear churches. Numerous cisterns for collecting rainwater, dug into the rocky bank of the mountain, also belong to the most ancient phase. (Source: https://www.parcodisegesta.com/)
Multimedia map with all interested sites: Segesta Archive
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
Photo: Google
Note: The populating of the files of the Heritage database proceeds in incremental phases: cataloging, georeferencing, insertion of information and images. The cultural property in question has been cataloged, georeferenced and the first information entered. In order to enrich the information content, further contributions are welcome, if you wish you can contribute through our area "Your Contributions"
