From the Taormina of the Greeks (Tauromenion) to that of Roman era (Tauromenium). Captured in the time span of its maximum splendor – from 3rd century BC and up to 2nd century AD – the city nestled on the slopes of the Mount Taurus and from the imposing scenographic structure, where each monument had been conceived by the Greeks to look at the sea – and be admired by the sea – will be the protagonist of the great archaeological and multimedia exhibition by title “From Tauromenion to Tauromenium. The invisible city between history and archaeology”scheduled for Palazzo Ciampoli from August 3rd to November 30th 2024. Visits every day from 10am to 7pm.
A great choral project of the Archaeological Park Naxos Taorminadirected by the archaeologist Gabriella Tiganowhich for about two years has coordinated various working groups – scientific and technical – made up of archeologists and officials of the Park, of the Superintendence of Messina and of the University of Messina, Palermo And Catania and by an interdisciplinary team consisting of architects, computer scientists, filmmaker and experts in 3D reconstructions with the aim of recomposing, rereading and telling the DNA of a city with an ancient history and, for his privileged positioninhabited since time immemorial. What archaeologists in fact define “continuity of life site”precisely to indicate the uninterrupted human presence over the millennia. With all that this entails in terms of stratifications and modifications of monuments, private houses and public buildings which, as in the case of the Ancient Theatrebecame a real deposit of architectural elements to be “recycled” for new constructions: whole – like the columns of the scene, today visible also along the main street decorating the facades of period buildings – or reduced to powder to be used as mortar/cement for new constructions.
The exhibition has two levels of reading: on the one hand the material one with finds, architectural elements, fragments and statues discovered during ancient and recent excavations, carried out with public and private funding; on the other hand the virtual reading plan with the animated reconstruction of buildings which, like cracks in the contemporary urban fabric, emerge from the exposed excavations of the alleys and squares of Taormina. That is, the “invisible city”.
“This exhibition – said the councilor for cultural heritage and Sicilian identity, Francis Paul Scarpinato – It is evidence of how the narration of an archaeological museum can and must adapt to contemporary languages to be able to speak to different audiences and to new generations, born and raised with new technologies. The digitization of museum contents, together with 3D reconstructions which give us back the Greek and Roman Taormina, go in this direction”.
On display at Palazzo Ciampoli These are finds that have been kept in the Park’s warehouses up to now (capitals, epigraphs, statues) and others resulting from more recent discoveries, known to scholars but never exhibited (such as some tanagrines found in the cistern of the Timeo hotel and finds from excavations at Villa San Pancrazio, the former Convent of San Domenico and other private properties). It’s still heads, bas-reliefs and inscriptionsfinds already known and normally exhibited in theAntiquarium of the Theater here framed in the thematic and historical context.
For the occasion, eagerly awaited by the local community, the famous “Priestess of Isis”marble statue found in 1867 near the church of San Pancrazio – ancient place of worship of Isis and Serapis – and since 1868 transferred to Salinas Museum of Palermothe first archaeological museum in Sicily. The statue has been absent from Taormina since 2001, when it was exhibited in the exhibition organized by the Superintendency of Messina with the Municipality of Taormina and set up in the spaces of Old Abbey. Other loans come from the Superintendence of Palermo and from Palermo Archbishop Seminary (ex collection Villafranca Alliata).
“Taormina – comments the director of the Park, Gabriella Tigano – it is a site with continuity of lifetherefore its urban history, over a period of about 2500 years, becomes for us scholars a complex mosaic to reconstruct, an operation to be conducted with the necessary scientific rigor. We have tried to recompose it, crossing documentary sources, movable finds and ancient structures and, with the support of modern digital technologieswe have created a series of videos with 3D animations to restore to visitors from all over the world and of all ages the fascination of the monumental and scenic city founded by the Greeks and which experienced centuries of peace and fortune even in Roman times”.
The exhibition itinerary is divided into six thematic sections, which unfold over the two floors of Ciampoli Palace. We start from the Traces of the Sicilian populations documented by the necropolis of Cocolonazzo: the origins, living and dwelling in Tauromenion/ium: the houses of men; public buildings, the places of the sacred, the necropolis, from the theatre to the amphitheatre, the collecting. While a archaeological map, 3D reconstructions and a device multimedia and immersive (video and video mapping) will make visitors relive the experience of wandering through current alleys and inside the ancient city.