Siracusa - Italy

I'm back!! After a great week in France, here i am again with my received cards. By the way, while i was travelling i've received 13 cards!! And in my backpack i brought more than.... 200 french cards. I know, that's too much but they were so beautiful.

These are not french but they're also beautiful. Like the previous one, these Syracuse were also sent by Silvano. 

Syracuse is a historic city located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes.This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. 

In the modern day, the city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. - in: wikipedia

 Ediz. Italia Sebastiano - Siracusa

The Greek Theatre, whose cavea is one of the largest ever built by the ancient Greeks: it has 67 rows, divided into nine sections with eight aisles. Only traces of the scene and the orchestra remain. The edifice (still used today) was modified by the Romans, who adapted it to their different style of spectacles, including also circus games. Near the theatre are the latomìe, stone quarries, also used as prisons in ancient times. - in: wikipedia

 Ediz. Italia Sebastiano

The "Duomo", Syracuse Cathedral, is the perfect fusion of pagan of and Christian worship. Rebuilt in 1700 after the earthquake of 1693, the façade, with its elegant hints of baroque, steals attention from the rest of the piazza. 

The beautiful blending of architectural styles spanning centuries is evident in both the internal and external aspects of the Cathedral. The Doric columns, visible on the left nave of the cathedral, date from the days when a Temple of Athena stood on the site. In the Seventh Century, when the first Christian church was built there, the columns were incorporated into its structure, linking the worship of the past, with the present. - in: http://www.italyguides.it/us/sicily_italy/syracuse/duomo_square/duomo_square.htm

Ediz. Italia Sebastiano

Completed only in 1994, the Shrine of Our Lady of Tears in Syracuse is a work of contemporary architecture began in 1966, although not without arousing heated controversy for its impressive size (90 meters / 295 ft wide and almost as high), which for better or worse creates a visual reference point of primary importance in the city’s skyline.

Circular in shape, the shrine was built to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims drawn to a small plaster image of the Madonna, from which, in 1953 in an impoverished house of Syracusan faithful, tears miraculously were said to emanate.  

The shape of the dizzying dome is meant to recall both a tear that falls and a tented pavilion serving as a sign of welcome to pilgrims. 

Inside the building, the dome stands on a sleek structure of reinforced concrete pillars, open in all directions by lines of windows that create an elegant and luminous radial pattern.  

The space consists of a place of worship, the shrine itself, and a second underground area, the crypt.  

The sixteen chapels built around the base of the shrine house several well-preserved ancient and contemporary works of art, while the crypt’s eight chapels house modern mosaics and the remains of a Greek-Roman and Byzantine tomb, discovered during the excavation of the foundation. - in: http://www.algila.it/en/madonna_delle_lacrime.htm