what’s the oldest place in your town?

4 comments

1. The oldest that is visible here in the city of Palermo is a Phoenician cemetery from around 600BC.

   There are lots of other Phoenician remains, but nearly all of them are covered over by other later buildings and not visible to the public… some of them however can be visited.

2. There are a few tumuli from Roman times, about 1800 years old. Apart from that, there are the foundations of Roman houses. The oldest finds are about 6000-year-old grave remains with various finds from the Copper Age.

   The oldest house still in existence today was first mentioned in a document in 1164, but has been rebuilt several times since then. There is now a bar in the basement.

3. We have a castle, an ancient theater (2,300 years ago, hellenistic times) and the ancient agora (2,000 years ago, roman times). * *see below*

   But the castle is tricky.

   It’s original temple was 4,000 years ago (some say eralier than that, it was a Pelasgian city) but then kept being, er… upcycled every now and then. Last time it had a major renovation (lol) was in medieval times. But since it was built by the material already existing, you can see an inscription with archaic Greek integrated in the medieval wall.

   * And even though the Agora and the theater are as said above, the original buildings (not there anymore) were also archaic. So, as a spot in the map, it’s pretty old.

4. There was a bronze age trade route near me, one thing was dated to 3300 years old.

   Our church is at least 990 years old. It might already be 1000 years old because all we know is the year in which the bishop who sanctified it died.